An Early Pottery Neolithic Occurrence at Beisamoun, the Hula Valley, Northern Israel
An Early Pottery Neolithic Occurrence at Beisamoun, the Hula Valley, Northern Israel

Author: Danny Rosenberg

Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Limited

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9781407305714

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the autumn of 2007 a large-scale salvage excavation took place on the western margins of Beisamoun in the Hula Valley in northern Israel, as part of the development of the Rosh Pina-Qiryat Shmona highway. Excavation in the western part of the greater area of the Beisamoun site, formerly known for its Pre-Pottery Neolithic B finds, revealed a wealth of a archaeological objects attributed to an early phase of the Pottery Neolithic period. This volume presents the final reports of the 2007 salvage excavation, and it discusses relevent issues concerning the Prehistory of the Hula Valley during the earliest stages of the Pottery Neolithic period. Chapter 1) The site and the 2007 salvage excavation (Danny Rosenberg); Chapter 2) Geological and geomorphological settings (Nurit Shtober ); Chapter 3) The stone component of the pits and pavements (Danny Rosenberg and Nurit Shtober); Chapter 4) The pottery assemblage (Danny Rosenberg); Chapter 5) The lithic assemblage (Iris Groman-Yeroslavski and Danny Rosenberg); Chapter 6) The obsidian assemblage (Danny Rosenberg); Chapter 7) The stone assemblage (Danny Rosenberg); Chapter 8) The Skeletal Remains (Vered Eshed); Chapter 9) The faunal remains (Noa Raban-Gerstel and Guy Bar-oz); Chapter 10) Cremation from the Hellenistic period at Beisamoun and other finds of historic periods (Yotam Tepper); Chapter 11) The Early Pottery Neolithic of Beisamoun and the Neolithic of the Hula Valley - Summary and Discussion (Danny Rosenberg).

‘Isaac went out to the field’: Studies in Archaeology and Ancient Cultures in Honor of Isaac Gilead
‘Isaac went out to the field’: Studies in Archaeology and Ancient Cultures in Honor of Isaac Gilead

Author: Haim Goldfus

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2019-04-30

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 178491830X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

‘Isaac went out to the field (Genesis 24:63)’ presents 28 articles honouring Professor Isaac Gilead on his 71st birthday. Papers on prehistoric and proto-historic archaeology reflect the focus of the honoree’s teaching and research, while other subjects including Biblical and Near Eastern studies explore Gilead’s other areas of interest.

The Social Archaeology of the Levant
The Social Archaeology of the Levant

Author: Assaf Yasur-Landau

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-12-20

Total Pages: 941

ISBN-13: 1108668240

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology of the southern Levant (modern day Israel, Palestine and Jordan) from the Paleolithic period to the Islamic era, presenting the past with chronological changes from hunter-gatherers to empires. Written by an international team of scholars in the fields of archaeology, epigraphy, and bioanthropology, the volume presents central debates around a range of archaeological issues, including gender, ritual, the creation of alphabets and early writing, biblical periods, archaeometallurgy, looting, and maritime trade. Collectively, the essays also engage diverse theoretical approaches to demonstrate the multi-vocal nature of studying the past. Significantly, The Social Archaeology of the Levant updates and contextualizes major shifts in archaeological interpretation.

Evolution of a Taboo
Evolution of a Taboo

Author: Max D. Price

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2021-01-07

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0197543278

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"From their domestication to their taboo, the role of pigs in the ancient Near East is one of the most complicated topics in archaeology. Rejecting monocausal explanations, this book adopts an evolutionary approach and uses zooarchaeology and texts to unravel the cultural significance of swine from the Paleolithic to today. Five major themes emerge: The domestication of the pig from wild boar in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, the unique roles that pigs developed in agricultural economies before and after the development of complex societies, the raising of swine in cities, the shifting ritual roles of pigs, and the formation and development of the pork taboo in Judaism and, later, Islam. The development of this taboo has inspired much academic debate. I argue that the well-known taboo described in Leviticus reflects the intention of the Biblical writers to develop an image of a glorious pastoral ancestry for a heroic Israelite past, something they achieved by tying together existing food traditions. These included a taboo on pigs, which was developed early in the Iron Age during conflicts between Israelites and Philistines and was revitalized by the Biblical writers. The taboo persisted and mutated, gaining strength over the next two and a half millennia. In particular, the pig taboo became a point of contention in the ethno-political struggles between Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures in the Levant. Ultimately, it was this continued evolution within the context of ethnic and religious politics that gave the pig taboo the strength it has today"--

Material Images of Humans from the Natufian to Pottery Neolithic Periods in the Levant
Material Images of Humans from the Natufian to Pottery Neolithic Periods in the Levant

Author: Estelle Orrelle

Publisher: BAR International Series

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781407312231

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This dissertation demonstrates that the surprising iconography of human images in the archaeological assemblages of the Levantine Neolithic indicates that they were gods. An analysis of the iconography of the human-like artifacts of my data reveals genital shapes used metaphorically to portray androgynous images as well as elements of therianthropic imagery and red pigment. This iconography meets the predictions of the evolutionary anthropological hypothesis, the 'Female Cosmetic Coalition model' (FCC), which describes the first supernatural symbols as fused male: female, human: animal and red, and predicts that the iconography of early gods would bear this same symbolic syntax, y thesis shows that the material images of the Natufian and Neolithic in the Levant fit this model closely, confirming their identity as gods. The hunter-gatherer socio-economic structure established by the strategies of the FCC was expressed as the first social contract, by which humans lived for thousands of years. The FCC model provides an underlying unchanging syntax in the face of changing political-economy and sexual politics. I interpret my data as revealing a process of male ritual elites increasingly appropriating this syntax, incorporating it in a new social contract. At the end of the last Ice Age, I predict that in the Near East male elites competedto circumvent the onerous burden of the first social contract, to appropriate female ritual power and to establish hierarchical religion legitimizing a new social contract between humans and supernatural beings. This new contract bound gods and humans in a partnership of exchange. I suggest that this process can be identified in the increasingly elaborate ritual activity using costly signalling theory. This work contributes to the decipherment of the iconography of this assemblage of human images, and proposes a model for the origins of religion and social differentiation in the Levant.

The Dawn of the Bronze Age
The Dawn of the Bronze Age

Author: Shay Bar

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-11-21

Total Pages: 613

ISBN-13: 9004265643

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In The Dawn of the Bronze Age Shay Bar presents a detailed account of the pattern of settlement during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I periods (mid-Fifth to late Fourth Millennia BCE), in one of the least explored areas of the southern Levant – the lower Jordan valley and the desert fringes of the Samaria mountains. More than 120 surveyed sites and five excavation reports form an essential database for every scholar interested in the archaeology of the Near East in these periods. "Bar has accomplished an impressive task and has provided valuable new information on this important region that forms the transition between the central hill country and the eastern side of the Jordan River." Eva Kaptijn, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXIV n° 1-2 (2017)