Iron Age hydraulic plaster from Tell es-Safi/Gath,Israel

Hydraulic plasters or mortars prior to the Roman period are rare. Here, we report the identification and characterization of 3000 year old (Iron Age) hydraulic plaster surfaces from the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath. This site, located in central Israel, was occupied almost continuously from prehistoric through modern times, and is identified as the Canaanite and Philistine city of Gath. A survey using an on-site Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) identified the presence of amorphous silicates, in addition to calcite, in each of two superimposed plaster layers. This suite of minerals is characteristic of hydraulic plaster. An in-depth characterization of the plasters using FTIR, acid dissolution, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffractometry (pXRD), heating experiments and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), shows that special silicate-containing minerals were brought from some distance to the site in order to produce these plaster surfaces. We therefore conclude that the plasters were deliberately produced, and were not the result of a fortuitous addition of local silicate minerals. A layer of around 150 μm thick enriched in carbonate hydroxylapatite was found in both plaster surfaces, and the same mineral was identified by infrared spectrometry in the surrounding sediments. This suggests that organic materials were used on these surfaces. These surfaces are among the oldest hydraulic plasters known.     

Iron and bronze production in Iron Age IIA Philistia: new evidence from Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel

A metallurgically-oriented excavation in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath yielded evidence for iron and bronze production dating to the early Iron Age IIA. Two pit-like features, which differed considerably from one another in colour, texture and content, were excavated. Evidence shows that each feature represents a different in situ activity related to iron production, inferred by the presence of hammerscales, slag prills and slag. An upturned crucible was found on top of one of the features. Analysis of the crucible slag showed that it was used for bronze metallurgy. Tuyères, both round and square in cross-section, were found in and around the two features. The presence of the two industries together presents a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between copper and iron working. This is especially important against the background of the scarcity of evidence for iron production in the Levant during the early phases of the Iron Age.     

A Note on Iron Age Figural Artefacts from Tell Dothan

ABSTRACT

Tell Dothan, located just 10 kilometers from modern-day Jenin, was excavated by Joseph P. Free for 10 seasons between 1953–1964 (Figure 1). During the course of these excavations, Free recovered numerous figurines and figural artefacts. The study of figural artefacts in the southern Levant in the last two decades has received renewed interest with re-examinations of well-known traditions (for a recent and interesting reinvestigation of the Iron Age Judean Pillar Figurines, see Darby 2014), closer attention to the production processes (e.g., Ben Shlomo 2010; Darby 2014; Kletter, et al. 2010), and discussions about the uses and functions of these curious objects. The present article presents only those from the Iron Age with attention to their spatial distribution in order to contribute to the understanding of the archaeological remains at the site. At the same time, the Iron Age collection from Dothan is important not only because it supplements the growing number of published figural artefacts from the southern Levant, in particular from the lesser-explored regions of the modern-day West Bank, but because it textures the interpretation of the architecture at tell Dothan, itself.     

Atacamite pigment at Tell Abraq in the early Iron Age

X-ray powder diffraction analysis identified a concentration of green pigment in a shell from Tell Abraq as the copper mineral atacamite. The use of atacamite as a pigment in the ancient world is discussed.     

Iron smelting and smithing in major urban centers in Israel during the Iron Age

By-products of iron production, mainly slag and bloom fragments, unearthed at three Iron Age urban centres in Israel (Hazor, Tel Beer sheba and Rehov), were analysed in order to better understand the organization of iron production during the Iron Age. The production remains studied are all dated not earlier than the Iron Age IIA, and thus shed light on a period of transition from bronze to iron production. Chemical composition and microstructural analyses enable us to determine that both the smelting of iron ores and the refining of the bloom took place within the urban centres of Hazor and Beer-Sheba. We show that slag cakes are the products of smelting, possibly carried out in pit-furnaces. Hammerscales, products of primary and secondary smithing, were attached to slags. From these observations we infer that all stages of iron production were practiced in these urban centres.     

An early Iron Age assemblage of faience beads from Ashkelon,Israel: chemical composition and manufacturing process

The microstructure and chemical composition of eight faience beads from an early Iron Age (12th century BCE) assemblage found in the ancient city port of Ashkelon (Israel) are determined by means of FTIR spectrometry, pXRF, microRaman and SEM-EDS analysis. The results are compared with published data of Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. Each sample exhibits a hue which is obtained by adding a specific colorant to the glazing mixture. A new gray chalcopyrite-manganese-based colorant was identified. Cementation glazing was most likely used in the manufacturing process of the specimens analyzed, except for the blue bead, which is an Egyptian blue frit. The results suggest that these objects represent a unique assemblage, quite different from contemporary Egyptian and Near Eastern materials, and provide new information regarding the Iron Age faience evidence in the southern Levant.     

The Isle of Portland: An Iron Age Port-of-trade

The Isle of Portland (Dorset, England) was part of a trading system that involved the circulation of goods in and across the English Channel during the first century BC. This paper assesses the suitability of Portland as an Iron Age port-of-trade, focuses on the exotics found there and discusses evidence for its hill-fort, which was destroyed in the middle of the nineteenth century     

Rock-art and the transition to farming. The Neolithic landscape of the central Mediterranean coast of Spain

Summary. This paper deals with the analysis of stylistic variation between the different rock‐art traditions that coexisted in the central Mediterranean coastal area of Spain in the Neolithic period – the Macro Schematic tradition, the Schematic tradition and the Levantine tradition. The stylistic variation is analyzed in different scales from the panel with its compositions and superimpositions, to the shelter – shared or exclusive – and the landscape, focussing on patterns of distribution and relationships with settlement sites. This stylistic analysis enables us to study the chronological aspects of the process of Neolithization; while the symbolic character of these marks on the landscape offers an insight into the perception and use of space by the communities who made them.     

Identifying Threshing Floors in the Archaeological Record: A Test Case at Iron Age Tel Megiddo,Israel

Abstract

The identification of activity areas in archaeological sites is an important part of archaeological research contributing to the reconstruction of past ways of life. The threshing floor is an activity area that relates to subsistence practices in agricultural societies, yet identifying threshing floors in the archaeological record is difficult. We present a geoarchaeological study conducted at an Iron Age layered feature unearthed in 1998 at Tel Megiddo, Israel, in which we tested a previous assumption that it represents the remains of a threshing floor. Using micromorphology, mineralogy, elemental analysis, phytoliths, and dung spherulites, we show that the materials comprising the bulk of the layers in the Megiddo feature include large amounts of wood ash and the inorganic remains of livestock dung. Based on these results, coupled with ethnographic data on threshing floors and observations on the macroscopic traits of the feature under consideration, we conclude that the layered feature at Megiddo does not represent a threshing floor but a single-household trash heap. We suggest that the interpretation of similar features at other archaeological sites as threshing floors be reevaluated.     

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...     

Symbolic engravings on Byzantine sounding leads from the Carmel coast of Israel

Two Byzantine sounding leads recovered from a shipwreck off the Israeli coast were identified and dated by associated coins and artefacts to the 5th–6th centuries AD. The leads are similarly shaped. A cross and a sign like a capital'P' mark both. They may be from a set including an inshore and a deep-sea lead. A depiction of the stellar constellation Cassiopeia is seen on top of the lug of the small lead. Interpretation of the sign is supported by the navigational role of the constellation as well as by a classical tradition associating it with Jaffa and by its symbolic, anti-storm role.     

Al-Ghoryeen: An Early Bronze Age settlement in central Oman peninsula

Al-Ghoryeen, located 95 km southwest of Muscat, is a unique settlement dating to the Umm an-Nar period and is built upon a Late Hafit period settlement. It was found in 2004 and excavation began in 2018. Preliminary analysis of the results revealed two major occupation phases with an occupational gap in between. A change occurred between the earlier and later phases of the settlement system reflected mainly in the difference in building sizes and plan. We excavated either partially or completely a stone round tower and more than 10 domestic structures. The distribution of the architectural features including the round tower, domestic structures and burials showed some kind of organised settlement structure. The Hafit period settlement was tested in two trenches where ¹⁴C analysis dated the earliest occupation to the late Hafit period.     

Iron Age Coinage on the Isle of Wight

This paper presents a discussion and catalogue of the Iron Age coins found on the Isle of Wight which have been recorded, or are extant, on the island. These coins show a wide variety of links with the mainland and Continental Europe. Many of the coins are of unusual or unique types, suggesting a political division between the Isle of Wight and recognized major tribal groups for at least some of the Late Iron Age. Links are indicated with the intermediary Hampshire group introduced by Sellwood (1984). Strong links are shown with the Durotriges group to the west, and to a lesser degree with the Atrebates/Regni group to the east of the island. There are also preliminary indications of political and social centralization on the island for the first time, from numismatic finds.     

Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site,the Negev Highlands,Israel

The Negev Highlands (southern Israel) is an arid zone characterized by settlement oscillations. One settlement peak occurred in the early Iron Age IIA (late 10th and early 9th centuries BC). The most conspicuous structure in many sites of this period is an oval compound comprised of an internal courtyard surrounded by rooms. Two hypotheses for the function of these oval compounds are that they served as Israelite fortresses which guarded the southern border and routes of the Solomonic kingdom, or that they represent local agro-pastoral groups. In order to gather more information regarding the subsistence practices conducted in these oval compounds, we carried out a small-scale excavation at the site of Atar Haroa. We focused on sediment sampling and used several geoarchaeological, as well as isotopic, techniques in order to identify macroscopic and microscopic remains related to animal husbandry and crop agriculture. The remains identified from the archaeological sediments were compared with modern reference materials collected from abandoned Bedouin camps. The excavation included two half rooms and several test pits in the courtyard of the oval compound, featuring one Iron Age occupation level composed of gray sediments and relatively small amounts of pottery, bones and macro-botanical charred remains. Micromorphological, mineralogical, dung spherulite and isotopic analyses carried out on the gray occupational sediments from the rooms show that they originate from wood ash and dung, both used as fuel. Similar analyses of the gray sediments in the courtyard show that they originate only from degraded livestock dung. Phytolith analyses show that the gray anthropogenic sediments have similar concentrations of phytoliths as in control (yellowish) sediments and in the dung of winter free-grazing desert livestock and lichen-grazing black dwarf Bedouin goats. Phytoliths indicative of cereal crops are completely absent in the archaeological dung remains, indicating that cereal crops were not processed by the site inhabitants. Based on ethnographic and archaeological parallels, and on the presence of grinding stones and absence of sickle blades in the excavated rooms, we infer that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa subsisted on livestock herding and bought or exchanged cereal grains. Our results support the hypothesis that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa were desert-adapted pastoralists, rather than garrisoned soldiers.     

Ancient standards of volume: negevite Iron Age pottery (Israel) as a case study in 3D modeling

Hand-made cylindrical vessels unearthed in excavations of Iron Age IIA sites in the Negev Highlands constitute the largest and most dominant ceramic assemblage of simple-shaped vessels found in Israel. The volumes and linear dimensions of these vessels were analyzed based on computer 3D models reconstructed according to their drawn profiles. This analysis revealed the rules that could have been employed by the ancient potters in order to produce vessels of given volumes. These rules demonstrate the human ability to reveal approximate (but inherent) geometric relationships between form and volume and deploy them in everyday life.     

Ancient Sounding-Weights and Navigation along the Mediterranean Coast of Israel

Underwater archaeological investigations in Israel have recovered scores of sounding-weights of varying shapes, weights and ages. Sixty-three examples kept in Israel Antiquities Authority collections are described in detail, discussed, and placed in a tentative typology of sounding-weight types from the Israeli coast. Finds from shipwreck assemblages enabled dating of some types. Integration of the topography and hydrography of the Israeli coast with site-formation processes provides a theoretical explanation for the high number of weights recovered from Israeli underwater sites.
© 2009 The Authors