The Chalcolithic Period of the Southern Levant: A Synthetic Review

In the southern Levant, the late fifth millennium to mid-fourth millennium BC—traditionally known as the Chalcolithic period—witnessed major cultural transformations in virtually all areas of society, most notably craft production, mortuary and ritual practices, settlement patterns, and iconographic and symbolic expression. A degree of regionalism is evident in material culture, but continuity in ceramic styles, iconographic motifs, and mortuary practices suggests a similar cultural outlook linking these sub-regions. Luxury items found in group mortuary caves provide good evidence for at least some inequality in access to exotic materials. The level of complexity in social organization, however, is still debated. Divergent interpretations of Chalcolithic socio-economic organization suggest that, with the large amount of new information now available, a reevaluation of the debate is due. In this article we synthesize the more recent evidence and weigh interpretations of processes that led to the widespread fundamental changes witnessed during the late fifth to early fourth millennium BC.     

A Passion for Cultural Difference. Archaeology and Ethnicity of the Southern Levant

The use of ethnicity as a concept in archaeology and the implications of applying it to archaeological material in the Southern Levant are studied in this article. On the basis of recent developments within the modern state of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, the discussiotan focuses on the Iron Age and the identification of early Israelite sites in the 12th century BC. Despite theoretical achievements and methodological problems with the construction of identities, an extreme focus on differentiation is maintained. It is suggested that it is possible to study prehistoric periods with reference to social dynamics and ethnicity, incorporating a social world. Using ethnicity as a concept also raises fundamentally moral and ethical issues of how to practise archaeology.     

A new approach for geomagnetic archaeointensity research: insights on ancient metallurgy in the Southern Levant

We present results from an archaeointensity investigation based on a relatively unexploited recording medium, copper slag deposits. Together with a recently improved experimental design for the archaeointensity experiment, we demonstrate the applicability of this medium, as well as other archaeometallurgical artifacts, for the study of the ancient geomagnetic field intensity. In addition to archaeointensity data from well-dated archaeological contexts, we obtained reliable archaeointensity results from poorly dated or contentious archaeometallurgical sites in the Southern Levant. These results shed new light on the dating of these sites, among them the copper smelting installation of Timna 39b – a site that has important implications for the beginning of metallurgy during the fifth millennium BCE. The paper also aims to introduce archaeointensity research to the archaeologist scholar, and to encourage further collaboration between the disciplines in future research.     

南越国遗址

南越国（公元前203年至公元前111年）成立于西汉初期,是中国南方的附属国,它的成立加速了岭南地区从原始社会到封建社会历史发展的飞跃。1996年被列入全国文物保护单位。     

From Iberia to the Southern Levant: The Movement of Silver Across the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age

Journal of World Prehistory - The origins of the silver trade across the Mediterranean, and the role of the Phoenicians in this phenomenon, remain contentious. This is partly because of...     

Cities of the Sea: Maritime Trade and the Origin of Philistine Settlement in the Early Iron Age Southern Levant

The question of the origins of the Philistines, who settled in the southern Levant in the early Iron Age (12th century BC) has long been the subject of debate. Traditionally, they have been understood to lie with the 'Sea Peoples,' raiders who were thought to have wreaked havoc in the eastern Mediterranean at this time. A new conceptualization of the 'Sea Peoples,' phenomenon as the emergence of decentralized maritime trade leads to new questions regarding the settlements associated with it, namely those along the southern Levantine coastal plain and especially those considered 'Philistine.' It is the aim of this paper to reinterpret these sites in terms of their functional role within this decentralized network and it is suggested that they were established and maintained specifically for that purpose. Finally, the development of this network of interconnections is related to the parallel emergence of the Phoenicians and the Israelites in the eleventh and tenth centuries.     

Archaeological Site Management and Local Involvement: A Case Study from Abu Rawash,Egypt

Abstract

Local involvement is an essential element of successful archaeological site management. Recognition of the role of the local community could make a great contribution in improving the present critical situation of many archaeological sites worldwide. In Egypt, where internationally renowned archaeological sites attract both academic and tourism interests, archaeological sites and monuments are suffering from different issues. Amongst the various causes is the failure to recognize the relationship between the sites and the present society — both the local community and other stakeholders — and this has negatively influenced the sites. Not only have the local communities been given limited access to knowledge, and limited opportunities to become involved in the archaeology, but also their attempts to pursue a better standard of living have been restricted for the sake of protecting the national heritage. In this article I use a case study from Abu Rawash to explore strategies that could encourage local involvement in site management, through capacity building and communication with the government and other stakeholders. Although local involvement may not provide a drastic improvement of an individual site's condition, the principle of local involvement should contribute to a general improvement in Egypt, where conservation efforts largely focus on physical materials and little attention is given to the society surrounding the archaeological remains.     

A Dynamic Systems Framework for Studying Technological Change: Application to the Emergence of the Potter's Wheel in the Southern Levant

The dynamic systems framework may be considered an alternative to traditional approaches that study technological change. The benefits of this framework are simultaneously methodological and metaphorical. Methodologically, the framework provides a coherent analytic process for studying empirical data to explain the complexity of technological change. Metaphorically, the framework appeals to local-scale interactive mechanisms to account for the origins of change. Applicability of the dynamic systems framework for studying technological change is illustrated with an archaeological case study: the emergence of the potter's wheel in southern Levant during the 4th millennium BC.     

Foraging,Farming, and Social Complexity in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Southern Levant: A Review and Synthesis

The transition from foraging to farming of the Neolithic periods is one of, if not, the most important cultural processes in recent human prehistory. Integrating previously published archaeological materials with archaeological research conducted since 1980, the first half of this essay synthesizes our current understanding of archaeological data for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 11,700–ca. 8400 B.P.) of the southern Levant, generally defined as including southern Syria and Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Authority, Jordan, and the Sinai peninsula of Egypt. The second half of the essay explores how these data inform archaeologists about the processes by which social differentiation emerged, the nature of regional and interregional connections, and the mechanisms and processes by which the transition from foraging to food production first occurred in the Neolithic.     

Matchlocks, Flintlocks, and Saltpetre: The Chronological Implications for the Use of Matchlock Muskets among Ottoman-Period Bedouin in the Southern Levant

This paper examines the chronological implications for the prolonged use of matchlock muskets by the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period (1453–1918). Although the technology behind the matchlock ignition system is from the fifteenth century, this weapon was used by many Bedouin until the beginning of the twentieth century. As a result, the presence of gun parts from matchlock muskets poses a potential problem for identifying Bedouin occupations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the southern Levant and in northern Arabia. This issue is heightened by the paucity of diagnostic artifacts found at archaeological sites associated with the Bedouin during the Ottoman Period.     

丁村77:01地点和下川遗址细石器制品的类型初探

<正> 细石器工业是指从预制定型(锥状、楔状、柱状和半锥状等)的细石核上用压制技术有序地生产石叶,并选用这些初级产品主要用压制技术制成各类工具[1]。细石器的制作,是为了适应复合工具的特殊需要而产生的一种工艺技术[2]。这种工艺的核心应该是间接剥片和压制修理。与这种严格意义上的细石器(细石核、细石叶及用细石叶加工的石器)共存的用石片制成的小石器,如圆头     

Domesticating gender: Neolithic patterns from the southern Levant

This paper examines the extant evidence regarding gender reconstructions and relations for the Neolithic of the southern Levant of southwest Asia. Data from human skeletal remains, mortuary contexts, architecture, and figurative art provide the empirical bases for a broad assessment of gender in the realms of productive labor, social organization, and ideology. Overall, little evidence is found to support that Neolithic societies in this region were organized hierarchically in terms of gender.     

Identification of dermestid pupal chambers on Southern Levant human bones: inference for reconstruction of Middle Bronze Age mortuary practices

Unique bone damage identified on Middle Bronze Age human skeletal material from the Southern Levant provided important information about the processes of modification and the possible funerary practices resulting in such damage. By comparing archaeological remains with recent skeletal material and by using computed tomography (CT) scans and 3D imaging techniques, the damage is interpreted as pupal chambers created by dermestid beetles. Using skeletal remains from two Middle Bronze Age sites, Jericho Tomb E1 and Munhata Tomb 641, we then discuss how the bores and tunnels left by dermestid beetles on human bones might constitute an interpretative key to the funerary practices of Middle Bronze Age collective burials.     

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

This paper reviews recent developments in geochronology, archaeology, and behavioral interpretations of the Middle Paleolithic Period (ca. 47–250 Kyr) in the East Mediterranean Levant. Neandertals and early modern humans both occupied the Levant during this period. Both these hominids are associated with the Levantine Mousterian stone tool industry and similar sets of faunal remains. The Levant has long been seen as preserving evidence for the origin of modern humans out of Neandertal ancestors. Recent radiometric dates for Levantine Middle Paleolithic contexts challenge this hypothesis. Instead, they suggest the evolutionary relationships between these hominids were far more complicated. Proposed models for Neandertal and early modern human coevolutionary relationships are examined. Intense competition between Neandertals and early modern humans for a narrow human niche may be the context out of which the Upper Paleolithic behavioral revolution arose.     

Middle Bronze Age metallurgy in the Levant: evidence from the weapons of Byblos

This paper constitutes a synthesis of a technological investigation on copper base alloy weapons from Byblos. Most of the weapons are typical of the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. Methods such as metallographic examination and chemical analyses by EDS were used to identify the different stages of the chaîne opératoire used in the making of these weapons. The results reveal precise information regarding the production of several types of weapons such as the type and performance of the moulds used for casting and the deformation process. Furthermore, these results highlight the contribution of economic and cultural factors in the choice of components in a copper base alloy recipe. Finally, the use of silver–copper brazes for joining copper base alloy objects is recorded for the first time for the period and region concerned.     

Quebrada Tacahuay,Southern Peru: A Late Pleistocene Site Preserved by a Debris Flow

Abstract

Here we describe the properties of a debris flow apparently generated by a warm phase El Niño event that buried an intermittently occupied Late Pleistocene forager site located in the southern coastal desert of Peru. Although the event deposited roughly one meter of sediment over the initial occupation, our analyses of debris flow dynamics and data from large scale archaeological investigations indicate that the earliest anthropogenic deposits at the site of Quebrada Tacahuay were preserved intact as a result of the burial episode; there is no evidence that the debris flow scoured or disturbed the cultural deposits. The event that buried the oldest archaeological contexts at Quebrada Tacahuay differs from other flood events that are characterized by turbulent, fast-moving floodwaters. Our data on debris flow dynamics and our results from excavation have implications for identifying, investigating, and interpreting other deeply buried archaeological sites both in the central Andes and in other geographic regions.