The Beginning of Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: A Late 6th Millennium CalBC Copper Awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel

Garfınkel, Yosef; Klimscha, Florian; Shalev, S.; Rosenberg, Danny

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092591

Cited by 61 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Such large amounts of olive pollen might be the earliest observable evidence for olive growing as well as clear evidence of human impact on the vegetation in this region. A similar pattern in the olive curve can be observed in the Dead Sea pollen record, starting during the Late Chalcolithic Ghassulian culture (the terminology follows Garfinkel et al 2014) around 6,500 cal bp (4550 bce) based on a reliable chronology ( Fig. 7; Litt et al 2012).…”

Section: 000-5000 Cal Bp (Transition Neolithic/chalcolithic To Earsupporting

confidence: 75%

Holocene vegetation history of the southern Levant based on a pollen record from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel

Schiebel

Litt

2017

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee and Lake Tiberias, is located in the northeast of Israel. At a lake level of 211 m b.s.l. (below mean sea level), the central basin is 43 m deep. The maximum length of the lake is 21 km (N-S) and its maximum width is 12 km (W-E). Lake Kinneret's surface area is 166 km 2 . A new 17.8 m long sedimentary core was drilled in 2010. Here, we present the entire palynological record from it, which covers the last ~ 9,000 years. Special emphasis is given to the natural and human-influenced vegetation history of Galilee in comparison to that of the more southerly Dead Sea region. Significant signs of human impact are the first Olea (olive) increase during the beginning of the Chalcolithic period between 7,000 and 6,500 years ago, as well as the prominent Olea phase during the Hellenistic/Roman/Byzantine period between 2,300 and 1,500 years ago. Mediterranean macchia and bathas scrub vegetation, as known in the area today, has developed in the southern Levant under human impact since the last ca. 1,500 years.

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Section: 000-5000 Cal Bp (Transition Neolithic/chalcolithic To Earsupporting

confidence: 75%

Holocene vegetation history of the southern Levant based on a pollen record from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel

Schiebel

Litt

2017

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…However, tin bronzes do occasionally show up earlier, appearing in a late-Neolithic context at Aruchlo (Hansen, 2012) and at Early Bronze Age Velikent in the North Caucasus (Kohl, 2003;Peterson, 2003). The former case is one of the earliest tin bronze objects found in the Near East (for other, not entirely uncontroversial examples from the Near East and southeastern Europe, see Garfinkel et al, 2014;Radivojevi c et al, 2014;Radivojevi c et al, 2013;Sljivar and Bori c, 2014). Moreover, even in the Late BronzeeEarly Iron Age, tin bronze was not a universal alloy (Abesadze, 1958:58e59, 98e99;Kavtaradze, 1999:86e87).…”

Section: The Question Of Tin Supplies In the Near East And The South mentioning

confidence: 97%

Crucible technologies in the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age South Caucasus: copper processing, tin bronze production, and the possibility of local tin ores

Erb‐Satullo

Gilmour

Khakhutaishvili

2015

Journal of Archaeological Science

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a b s t r a c tThe South Caucasus was a major center of metal production in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Nowhere is this more clear than in the hills and mountains in the southeastern Black Sea region (ancient Colchis), where exceptionally large numbers of metal production sites have been found. Chemical and microscopic analysis of slagged technical ceramics at these sites illuminates several aspects of both raw copper and tin bronze alloy production. Copper ores were smelted in a complex multi-stage process designed to extract metal from sulfide ores. Technical ceramics served as containers for a range of different reactions, from the first phase of smelting, in which the copper sulfides were likely consolidated into a matte, though later stages of matte processing and metal copper production in smaller crucibles. In addition, a single crucible fragment, recovered from a late 2nd millennium BC slag heap, demonstrates that tin bronze was created by the direct addition of cassiterite tin ore, probably of alluvial origin, to metallic copper. The crucible's context, the use of cassiterite ore rather than tin metal, and a review of local geology suggests that the tin used in this crucible came from nearby, with the most likely source being the Vakijvari and Bzhuzhi gorges roughly 10e15 km away. While a single fragment does not speak to the regularity of this practice, at the very least it raises the possibility that the Colchian bronze industry was based on local rather than imported tin.

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“…The circular gold-colored metallic ornament which was placed in the section of the Procession wall painting, depicting a headpiece, was not analyzed, but it could be either of electrum or copper (Drabsch 2015a). However, such a small piece of metal is hardly evidence for metallurgy and native copper is known to have been present in Neolithic contexts as well (Garfinkel et al 2014).…”

Section: G 882mentioning

confidence: 99%

Temples in the Ghassulian Culture: Terminology and social implications

Gošić

2016

EAP / IEA

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Archaeological discussions on prehistoric ritual are largely concerned with their material remains, including architectural debris. The first step in interpretation of such remains is their precise identification and categorization. There are numerous terms for objects and architectural remains that are widely utilized in the archaeological jargon, including, but not limited to, the terms temple, sanctuary and shrine. During almost a century of studying the Chalcolithic Ghassulian culture of the southern Levant, various architectural structures excavated at the sites of Teleilat Ghassul, Gilat and En Gedi have all been interpreted as temples, sanctuaries, or shrines -terms that in case of the Ghassulian culture are used as synonymous of temples. However, the actual architectural remains from these sites differ significantly and explicit definitions on what is meant by the terms used are rare. Apart from demonstrating the importance of properly defining a term in a context in which it is used, the aim of the present paper is to compare these various architectural remains, as well as various interpretations of Ghassulian society and the role the presumed temples played in them. This will be the basis for evaluating how classifying archaeological structures as temples has influenced interpretations of Ghassulian social organization.

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The Beginning of Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: A Late 6th Millennium CalBC Copper Awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel

Cited by 61 publications

References 16 publications

Holocene vegetation history of the southern Levant based on a pollen record from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel

Holocene vegetation history of the southern Levant based on a pollen record from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel

Crucible technologies in the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age South Caucasus: copper processing, tin bronze production, and the possibility of local tin ores

Temples in the Ghassulian Culture: Terminology and social implications

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