Basalt vessels in Chalcolithic burial caves: Variations in prestige burial offerings during the Chalcolithic period of the southern Levant and their social significance

Abstract

The Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant is in part characterized by increased formalized ritual behavior, specifically in the form of burial caves. These caves feature a high variety of utilitarian and prestige grave goods. One of the notable finds in some of the burial caves are basalt vessels, which are considered a hallmark of the Chalcolithic period. Despite their ubiquity in domestic context and likely status as prestige goods produced at specialized production sites, basalt vessels are absent from most burial caves, and the overall frequency of basalt vessels in the caves is highly variable. This paper reviews the phenomenon of basalt vessels in Chalcolithic burial caves and discusses the variability noted. The fact that these labor-intensive prestige goods were found in caves used as arenas for rich symbolic and ritualistic mortuary behavior suggests that while basalt vessels had an important role in Chalcolithic mundane context, the cultic significance of these vessels also entered the spectrum of beliefs concerning death and the afterlife. Moreover, the discrepancies noted in their presence in burial caves suggest that this significance was probably not shared among all Chalcolithic communities in the southern Levant.