Central Levant Research Articles

The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity, Yahweh before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name and Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity, Yahweh before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name and Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

Early Islamic Copper Coins from Excavations in the Central Levant: An Indicator for Ancient Economy

Early Islamic Copper Coins from Excavations in the Central Levant: An Indicator for Ancient Economy

Local amphorae from the Tyrian cemetery of al-Bass: typology, chronology, function and Mediterranean connections

The aim of this paper is a detailed analysis of the local amphorae employed as cinerary urns in tombs of the Iron Age cemetery of al-Bass, in Tyre. This form appeared around the second quarter of the 8th century BC, in an advanced stage of the Late Iron Age, and represents an apparent novelty in the ceramic array of the central Levant. From a typological perspective, this form is connected to the local plain storage-jars; from a technical point of view follow the morphological and decorative traditions of the local workshops; and they seem to be functionally related to Cypriot imports. However, the local amphorae cannot be considered imitations of the latter and neither seem to have substituted them. The apparent reason of the existence of those amphorae consists of changes in the consumption of wine, and their appearance does not seem to be an isolated phenomenon. Other parts of the Mediterranean under direct Levantine influence experienced similar typological phenomena. This circumstance led to the conclusion that some sort of trend in the consumption of wine existed during the 8th century BC, which apparently did not last much longer in the Levant, but continued overseas.

The characterisation of ceramic production from the central Levant and Egyptian trade in the Pyramid Age

A recent petrographic study of ceramic jars from Giza imported into Egypt during the 4th Dynasty of the Pyramid Age (c. 2613–2494 BCE) identified the original production zone as the Lebanese coast generally between Beirut and Tripoli, including the region of Byblos. The jars and their contents were imported to Egypt by maritime trade expeditions conducted at the behest of the Egyptian state. This study analyses a selection of these ceramic samples using ICP-AES and -MS for comparison with published data from the region of Byblos. The results not only confirmed the underlying petrography, but together with new evidence from Lebanon suggests the vessels likely belonged to specialised workshop production in the Byblos environs and were made specifically for export to Egypt. The finding sheds new light on the relationship between the Egyptian state and the polity of Byblos in the Early Bronze Age, indicating the presence of standardised local production and commodity procurement mechanisms tailored to the needs of a large trade entity. This relationship in turn delivered significant prestige and status to local elites in an environment of competitive local peer-polity interactions.

New Paleopathological Evidence of Tuberculosis in Child Skeletal Remains from Tell Aswad (8,730-8,290 cal. BC, southern Syria)

Abstract. In palaeopathology, in addition to typical skeletal lesions, the study of secondary or minor lesions increases the level of detection of pathologies in human populations of the past. In this perspective, we examined skeletal remains from the Neolithic site of Tell Aswad, located in the central Levant (southern Syria) in order to detect lesions attributable to tuberculosis (TB) infection. Skeletal lesions, vertebral and endocranial, are observed on the skeletal remains of a child from the Early PPNB horizon. These endocranial lesions show the pattern of Serpens Endocrania Symmetrica (“SES”) that is attributed to leptomeningitis (chronic TB meningitis). On the anterior aspect of four thoracic vertebrae, a remodeling and enlargement of the vascular foramina were also observed, suggestive of TB infection. This new case represents another clue in favor of the early presence of human tuberculosis in the Levant dated to the Neolithic period, in the context of the adoption of agriculture and animal domestication.

Recent Early Bronze Age Glyptic Finds from Lebanon: The Evidence from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida

While Early Bronze Age glyptic finds from the southern Levant as well as from Syria have received considerable attention in the scholarly literature, unfortunately the same cannot be said about the glyptic material from Lebanon. For a long time, Byblos was the only site with a considerable number of Early Bronze Age glyptic finds, but the often unclear stratigraphic and contextual situation of the material hugely diminished its scientific value. Fortunately, in recent years more clearly stratified material has emerged from Sidon, Tell Arqa, and Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, which for the first time enables us to better define the glyptic styles in use in the central Levant during the 4th and 3rd millennia b.c.e. The paper presents the glyptic finds from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, located on the Lebanese coast just 12 km north of Byblos, with a special emphasis on the iconography of the seals and seal impressions, as well as their contribution towards the external relations of the site.

The Origin of Imported Jars from 6th Dynasty Abusir: New Light on Early Bronze Age Egyptian-Levantine Relations

Thin-section petrography on imported Combed jars from the 6th Dynasty Abusir tomb complex of Qar and his family identified the central Levant, between Beirut and Tripoli, as the production zone of ...

Qedesh in the Galilee: The Emergence of an Early Bronze Age Levantine Megasite

ABSTRACT The Early Bronze Age (ca. 3700–2500 b.c.) was an era of wide-ranging changes in the Southern and Central Levant, commonly interpreted in the context of the advent of urban structures in this region. Key elements in regional narratives of urbanization are large fortified sites viewed as regional centers, whose local history is often perceived as a paradigmatic expression of the entire process. Here we present the first stage of research at the site of Qedesh in the Galilee (Israel), that emerged as a large Levantine hub at the turn of the 4th millennium b.c. The study is based on systematic high-resolution surface survey followed by density analysis, probing, and small-scale excavations. Our research suggests that Qedesh was a hitherto unknown key player in the interregional trajectory of social complexification by virtue of its size (min. 50 ha), composite inner structure, and ecotonal location that enhanced connectivity within an economic network associated with the production and distribution of South Levantine Metallic Ware.

On Early Bronze Age Levantine combed vessels: the view from the south

In memory of Jean-Paul Thalmann This paper presents evidence relating to the Early Bronze Age combed vessels of southern Canaan, based mainly on data from Tel Yarmuth. Neglected in previous studies on ‘Combed Ware’, this evidence confirms that combing should be considered as merely a ‘geste technique’. It further suggests that combing and ‘Metallic Ware’ are two distinct aspects with a different spatial and chronological distribution. The practice of combing emerged during EB II in its original core area of northern Canaan and the central Levant, in a milieu of incipient urbanism. In EB III, it spread to southern Canaan, in a context of growing inter-regional exchanges, and to the northern Levant, in the framework of the development of maritime connections between Egypt, Byblos and Ebla.

Developments in subsistence during the Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age in the southern and central Levant: Integration of faunal and botanical remains using multivariate statistics

Subsistence patterns during the Early Bronze Age I through the Iron Age II (3600-586 BCE) are the topic of many archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological studies. The results of these two disciplines are usually published separately, depriving us of an all-encompassing view of subsistence and agriculture during this time period since people did not solely make use of animal or plant products. In this paper, our goal is to integrate faunal and botanical lines of evidence and study developments in subsistence using multivariate statistics. By analysing individual and integrated datasets of botanical and faunal remains, we aim to better understand the role of diverse variables, such as chronology, mean annual precipitation, and elevation within the composition of our datasets. We see chronological differences, a distinction between sites at higher (400–600 mm) and lower (200–400 mm) precipitation ranges and differences between sites at different elevations (0–100 m and 500–600 m). We also highlight methodological issues intrinsic to differences in genesis and quantification of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological datasets. We conclude that to obtain a complete understanding of subsistence during the Bronze and Iron Age in the Southern Levant, archaeobotanists and zooarchaeologists need to work on integrating their data on a site-specific level. This will allow us to obtain a holistic understanding of subsistence and agricultural practices on both a site and regional level and allow us to develop a stronger framework for understanding social and political developments that occurred during these time periods.

Exploring Maritime Engagement in the Early Bronze Age Levant: A Space/Time Approach

Abstract This article brings to light small-scale and everyday maritime activities through the consolidation of Early Bronze Age maritime-related material culture from the coastal Levant. By doing so, the research provides an alternative perspective on Early Bronze Age maritime activities, away from broad accounts of connectivity that neglect small-scale rhythms of coastal life. The application of temporally imbued spatial analyses serves to contextualize the material record for maritime activities in a wider sphere of coastal dynamics and interaction. Through an analysis of the whole Levantine coast, this article transcends the separation between the southern, central, and northern Levant. In this way, the sea acts as a unifying agent, a common denominator. By shifting perspectives toward the sea, emphasis is placed on the importance of maritime activities without which our understanding of Early Bronze Age coastal communities and broader Early Bronze Age developments, such as social complexity, is limited.

Mugharat an-Nachcharini: A specialized sheep-hunting camp reveals high-altitude habitats in the earliest Neolithic of the Central Levant.

The earliest Neolithic of southwest Asia is generally perceived and portrayed as a period of emerging economic practices that anticipated full-fledged food-producing economies. This first Neolithic, however, can also be seen as the last gasp of an earlier way of life that remained fundamentally Epipaleolithic in character. While people at this time had begun to cultivate some of the plant foods gathered in preceding periods, and to live for lengthy periods in sites with substantial architecture, they also relied on hunting for a significant portion of their diet and logistical movement across landscapes to exploit diverse environments. The objective of our research on Nachcharini Cave, the only excavated early Neolithic site in the high mountains of northeastern Lebanon, is to evaluate its role in a form of logistical organization not well attested at other sites in the Levant during this period. On the basis of material that Bruce Schroeder excavated in the 1970s, we present here for the first time analyses of faunal and lithic evidence from Nachcharini Cave, along with new radiocarbon dates that place the major occupation layer of the site firmly in the earliest Neolithic. We conclude that Nachcharini was a short-term hunting camp that was periodically used over some two centuries.

The petrography of imported Levantine Combed vessels from early Old Kingdom Giza

Thin-section petrography was used to examine 36 samples of imported Early Bronze Age Combed vessels from Giza, Egypt. The samples come from fragmentary pots found in early Old Kingdom tombs of high officials, and the workers’ settlement at Heit el-Ghurab. Most date to the 4th Dynasty; coeval with the ARCANE Early Central Levant (ECL) 4 and Early Southern Levant (ESL) 5b periods. Results reveal a primary fabric with slight variations, containing material pointing to production centres close to Cretaceous formations outcropping in Central Lebanon, from Beirut and Tripoli. No fabrics from the southern Levant were identified. The results also demonstrate that by the early Old Kingdom, supply-lines to ceramic production centres in the Central Levant, linked to the acquisition of coniferous timbers, largely supplanted the diffuse networks of the Early Dynastic period.

The development of integrated regional economies in the Early Bronze Age Levant: new evidence from ‘Combed Ware’ jars

This paper uses new petrographic and geochemical data (ICP-AES and -MS analyses) taken from samples of ‘Combed Ware’ jars occurring at sites on the Lebanese coast, the Bekaa Valley, the Orontes Valley around Homs and the North Jordan Valley, to investigate the production and distribution of these vessels in the Levant during the Early Bronze Age. The evidence points to the existence of integrated regional interaction zones that can be identified through specific modes of craft production and the associated distribution networks. The new evidence sheds light on the development of a nucleated settlement landscape, and the economic, social and political changes that this implies, in central Levant and western Syria during the first-half of the 3rd millennium BC, Early Bronze Age.

Acts of Neolithic ritualization associated with Levantine bovine figurines

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates a corpus of Neolithic clay bovine figurines recovered from archaeological sites in the Central and Southern Levant. Despite numerous investigations, their function as utilitarian versus ritual objects is still unclear. In order to assess this issue, the depositional contexts and physical characteristics of just over 500 figurines were examined. The results reveal formalized and repetitive contextual data for the majority of the figurines studied, as well as commonality in their form and modifications. With reference to analogues from later Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft texts, support is found for the identification of the bovine figurines as objects associated with acts of ritualization, especially sacrifice, tied to the veneration of aurochs in Pre-Ceramic Neolithic periods. Furthermore, a symbolic structure linking bulls, sun, fire, ash, purification, fertility and rebirth was identified, possibly tying the bovine figurines to later fire rituals that are celebrated worldwide.

Pottery production at Tell Arqa (Lebanon) during the 3rd millennium BC: preliminary results of petrographic analysis

Studying well-documented assemblages is key to enhancing our understanding of the long-term evolution of pottery production and distribution in Bronze Age Levant. As a contribution to this effort, this paper presents, for the first time, the results of petrographic analysis undertaken on the Early Bronze (EB) pottery assemblage from Tell Arqa (northern Lebanon). Macroscopic and thin-section analyses were performed on a large set of samples. Beyond the characterization of eight petrographic groups, the study discusses the provenance of the raw materials and, taking advantage of the precise stratigraphic and typo-chronological sequence, gives a detailed vision of temporal change in ceramic production. It highlights a disruption at the end of the EB II–Early Central Levant (ECL) 2 and then a continuous evolution towards the homogenization of production both petrographically and technically — until the end of the EBA. Finally, through comparison with other evidence, it is possible to contextualize the evidence from Tell Arqa within regional Levantine pottery traditions existing during the 3rd millennium BC.

Climate dynamics during the penultimate glacial period recorded in a speleothem from Kanaan Cave, Lebanon (central Levant)

AbstractLittle is known about terrestrial climate dynamics in the Levant during the penultimate interglacial-glacial period. To decipher the palaeoclimatic history of the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 glacial period, a well-dated stalagmite (~194 to ~154 ka) from Kanaan Cave on the Mediterranean coast in Lebanon was analyzed for its petrography, growth history, and stable isotope geochemistry. A resolved climate record has been recovered from this precisely U–Th dated speleothem, spanning the late MIS 7 and early MIS 6 at low resolution and the mid–MIS 6 at higher resolution. The stalagmite grew discontinuously from ~194 to ~163 ka. More consistent growth and higher growth rates between ~163 and ~154 ka are most probably linked to increased water recharge and thus more humid conditions. More distinct layering in the upper part of the speleothem suggests strong seasonality from ~163 ka to ~154 ka. Short-term oxygen and carbon isotope excursions were found between ~155 and ~163 ka. The inferred Kanaan Cave humid intervals during the mid–MIS 6 follow variations of pollen records in the Mediterranean basins and correlate well with the synthetic Greenland record and East Asian summer monsoon interstadial periods, indicating short warm/wet periods similar to the Dansgaard-Oeschger events during MIS 4–3 in the eastern Mediterranean region.

North Atlantic controlled depositional cycles in MIS 5e layered sediments from the deep Dead Sea basin

AbstractThe drilled Inter-Continental Drilling Project core at the deeps of the Dead Sea reveals thick sequences of halite deposits from the last interglacial period, reflecting prevailing arid conditions in the lake’s watershed. Here, we examine sequences of intercalating evaporates (halite or gypsum) and fine-detritus laminae and apply petrographic, micro-X-ray fluorescence, and statistical tools to establish in high-temporal resolution the hydroclimatic controls on the sedimentation in the last interglacial Dead Sea. The time series of the thickness of the best-recovered core sections of the layered halite, detritus, and gypsum reveals periodicities of ~11, 7–8, and 4–5 yr, pointing to a North Atlantic control and possibly solar influence on the hydrology of the Dead Sea watershed during the regionally arid period of the last interglacial period. Similar periodicities were detected in the last glacial and modern sedimentary sequences of the Dead Sea and other archives of the central Levant, indicating a persistent impact of the solar cycles on regional hydrology, possibly through the effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Reconstruction of MIS 5 climate in the central Levant using a stalagmite from Kanaan Cave, Lebanon

Abstract. Lying at the transition between the temperate Mediterranean domain and subtropical deserts, the Levant is a key area to study the palaeoclimatic response over glacial–interglacial cycles. This paper presents a precisely dated last interglacial (MIS 5) stalagmite (129–84 ka) from the Kanaan Cave, Lebanon. Variations in growth rate and isotopic records indicate a warm humid phase at the onset of the last interglacial at ~ 129 ka that lasted until ~ 125 ka. A gradual shift in speleothem isotopic composition (125–122 ka) is driven mainly by the δ18O source effect of the eastern Mediterranean surface waters during sapropel 5 (S5). The onset of glacial inception began after ~ 122 ka, interrupted by a short wet pulse during the sapropel 4 (S4) event. Low growth rates and enriched oxygen and carbon values until ~ 84 ka indicate a transition to drier conditions during Northern Hemisphere glaciation.

Radiocarbon Evidence for the Early Bronze Age Levant: The Site of Tell Fadous-Kfarabida (Lebanon) and the End of the Early Bronze III Period

Absolute dates for the end of the Early Bronze Age ancient Near East are of crucial importance for assessing the nature and extent of mid- to late 3rd millennium BC transitions in the Near East and their alleged link to the 4.2ka BP climatic event. This article presents a radiocarbon sequence for the Early Bronze Age site of Tell Fadous-Kfarabida (Lebanon) and argues that the end of the Early Bronze III period has to be dated considerably higher than previously estimated. There is no reason to assume that the 4.2ka BP event might have contributed to or even triggered the collapse of the first urban cities in the southern and central Levant.