Life at the Dead Sea

The Chalcolithic Period in the Dead Sea Area

Kerner, Susanne

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Publication date: 2019

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Citation for published version (APA): Kerner, S. (2019). The Chalcolithic Period in the Dead Sea Area. In M. Peilstöcker, & S. Wolfram (Eds.), Life at the Dead Sea: Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz (pp. 157-173). Zaphon. ÄGYPTEN UND ALTES TESTAMENT Vol. 96

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T Zaphon men ta s Te s e Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), lt a d eilstöcker and Sabine Wolfram Wolfram eilstöcker and Sabine useum of P M artin en un M t dited by roceedings of the International Conference roceedings of the International Conference Ägyp E for the smac Life at the Dead Sea Life at the Dead P held at the State February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz

ÄAT 96 Life at the Dead Sea www.zaphon.de ÄAT-96-Life-at-the-Dead-Sea---Cover.indd 1

Life at the Dead Sea

Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz

Edited by Martin Peilstöcker and Sabine Wolfram for the smac

Studien zu Geschichte, Kultur und Religion Ägyptens und des Alten Testaments

Band 96

Gegründet von Manfred Görg Herausgegeben von Stefan Jakob Wimmer und Wolfgang Zwickel

Life at the Dead Sea

Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz

Edited by Martin Peilstöcker and Sabine Wolfram for the smac

Zaphon Münster 2019

Begleitband zur Ausstellung Leben am Toten Meer. Archäologie aus dem Heiligen Land 27.09.2019 – 29.03.2020 Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

Das smac ist eine Einrichtung des

Kooperationspartner der Tagung

Ägypten und Altes Testament, Band 96 Life at the Dead Sea. Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz Edited by Martin Peilstöcker and Sabine Wolfram for the smac

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Prepress: wisa-print, Frankfurt am Main

Printed in Germany Printed on acid-free paper

ISBN 978-3-96327-082-6 ISSN 0720-9061

Table of Contents

7 Martin Peilstöcker – Sabine Wolfram Foreword

9 Abbreviations

11 Martin Peilstöcker – Sabine Wolfram Life at the Dead Sea. The Exhibition Draft

19 Wolfgang Zwickel The Dead Sea in the Bible

35 Felicity Cobbing The Work of the Palestine Exploration Fund in the Dead Sea Region

45 Lutz Martin Jericho in Berlin

53 Hermann Michael Niemann Ernst Sellin, Carl Watzinger and the German Excavation of Jeri- cho, 1907–1909

67 Katharina Galor Gender at Qumran. Between Text and Material Culture

75 Frank H. Neumann – Wolfgang Zwickel Settlements, Climate and Vegetation at the Dead Sea from the Neolithic until the Crusader Period

95 Jutta Häser Water-Management in the Dead Sea Region

105 Eva Kaptijn Surviving the Summer. Ancient Water Management in the South ern Jordan Valley as Compared to the Central Jordan Valley

121 Verena J. Schuenemann Genome Sequences of 6,000-Year-Old Barley Provide New In- sights into the History of Crop Domestication

125 Andrea Orendi Development and Importance of Agrarian Resources in the Dead Sea Region in the Bronze and Iron Age

139 Lorenzo Nigro Jericho and the Dead Sea. Life and Resilience

157 Susanne Kerner The Chalcolithic Period in the Dead Sea Area

173 Florian Klimscha ‒ Danny Rosenberg The Pace of Progress. Technical Innovations in the Prehistory of the Dead Sea Region and the Jordan Valley

189 Eliot Braun A Brief Survey of Human Activity in the Dead Sea Region in Late Prehistory

195 Gunnar Lehmann Ancient Society and Economy at the Dead Sea from the Neolith ic Through the Persian Period

207 Gideon Hadas Excavations in the Oasis of En-Gedi

211 Jürgen K. Zangenberg Farms and Fortresses. Exploring the Diversity of Life Around the Dead Sea in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

225 Hans-Peter Kuhnen Guarding the Dead Sea. Military Concepts and Sites Between Herod and Justinian

235 Győző Vörös Machaerus. 50 Years of Excavations at the Herodian Fortified Royal Palace and City Overlooking the Dead Sea in Transjordan (1968 – 2018)

251 Stefan Jakob Wimmer Kallirrhoe – Herod’s Hot Springs Resort. The German Excava tions by August Strobel 1986–1989

263 Konstantinos D. Politis, Archaeology at the Lowest Place on Earth. Ghor es-Safi, Jordan

285 Marcello Fidanzio Qumran Cave 11Q Through the Ages

293 Itamar Taxel The Byzantine-Early Islamic Transition in the Dead Sea Region

317 Jean-Baptiste Humbert Qumran and Machaerus on a Hasmonean Axis

339 Orit Shamir – Naama Sukenik Textiles from the Neolithic until the Medieval Period in the Dead Sea Region

359 List of Authors

Plates 1 – 16

The Chalcolithic Period in the Dead Sea Area

Susanne Kerner

The Chalcolithic period in the Southern Levant is still a period under discussion, which refers both to the exact chronological position and the socio-political development during the period. The following article will summarise the chronological debate and then concentrate on the Late Chalcolithic period. The discussion will deal specifically with the archaeological evidence from the area around the Dead Sea, but also touch upon larger questions of craft specialisation, labour organisation, prestige objects and the importance of rituals or cultic matters.

1 Research history and chronology

The research history of this region and period has recently been extensively reviewed by Stephen Bourke (2008), Yorke Rowan and Jonathan Golden (2009), Zeidan Kafafi (2014) and Rowan (2014), so that a short overview will suffice here. The Early Chalcolithic includes the Wadi Rabah culture, assigned by some still to the Neolithic period; it is insufficiently dated (Rowan – Golden 2009) and difficult to pinpoint, as the original excavation of Wadi Rabah is very small with little evidence of architecture and material other than pottery (Kaplan 1969). Nevertheless, other sites such as Abu Hamid (Bourke 2008), Tuleilat Ghassul (Bourke 2008; Lovell 2001) and Tabaqat Buma (Banning et al. 2011), possibly also the Besorian (Gilead 1994), fall into the same time span of the mid to late 6th millennium BCE, even though these levels and sites have been considered both Early Chalcolithic or Late Neolithic by their excavators. The beginning of the 5th millennium BCE sees an Early / Middle Chalcolithic development that is witnessed in sites like Tuleilat Ghassul, Gilat, Shiqmim and, as a particularly interesting place, Tell Tsaf in the Jordan Valley (Garfinkel et al. 2007; Rosenberg et al. 2014). Most authors agree that the Late Chalcolithic starts around the middle of the 5th millennium, ending ca. 3,800/3,700 BCE (Kerner 2009; Rowan 2014). The precise end of the Late Chalcolithic period has recently been much discussed, as an increasing amount of 14C-data has shown the Early Bronze Age to begin as early as 3,700 BCE (Bourke et al. 2009) and the excavation of sites such as Hujayghat al-Ghuzlan and Fidan 4 indicates a period of transition between the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (Kerner 2009; Klimscha 2009). Any further chronological sub-divisions of the Late Chalcolithic remain unconvincing, as new or corrected 14C-data keep changing the picture, as for, e. g., Naḥal Mishmar in the Judean Desert, which had been considered to be at the very end of the period, until re-analysing the same material led to much earlier dates (Davidovich 2013). There have been attempts to use some material evidence as chronological indicators, such as the specific pottery form of the cornet. Cornets, however, are not just present in the latest “Terminal Chalcolithic” layers or sites (Joffe – Dessel 1995), but already in the earlier ones such as Ghassul G and H (Lovell 2001). The existence of copper has also been used as a chronological indicator (Golden 2009), as it does not exist in sites such as Grar and Gilat, which might both be in the earlier part of the Late Chalcolithic (Shugar – Gohm 2011). However, the occurrence of copper might also depend on the actual character of a site, because it is clear that copper does not exist in all Late Chal- colithic sites independent of their exact chronological position (see below). A fine chronological division of the years between approximately 4,500 and 3,800 BCE thus still waits for a more complete picture.

Late Chalcolithic Sites AF Affula EG Ein Gedi NU Neve Ur TB Tuleilat Batashi AL Abu Habil F Farah Nord P Pella Tu Tel Turmus AS Abu Snesleh Ge Gezer Q Qatif WY Wadi Yabris BS Beth Shan Ma Maqass S Shuna DI Delhamiya Me Megiddo Sa Sahab De Dere’a Ms Meser SA Scheich Ali

Fig. 1 Map showing sites with metallurgical finds (bold) and sites with production remains (squares) (map: Hugh Barnes).

2 Regionalism

One of the characteristic elements of the Late Chalcolithic in the Southern Levant is its strong regional flavour. Different authors divide the region into various groups. Jaimie Lovell (2001) considers with the Golan, the northern as well as the southern Jordan Valley and the Negev four groups, while Rowan and Golden (2009) include Beersheba, the Jordan Valley, the eastern highlands, southern Jordan and Israel, the Upper and Lower Galilee and the Golan among their six regional entities. Susanne Kerner

(2001) created with the burial sites at the Mediterranean coast, the western mountains, the northern Jordan Valley, the southern Jordan Valley, the Judean Desert, the Jordanian plateau, the eastern as well as the western Negev with the coastal area and the southern Wadi ‘Arabah nine regions, while Thomas Levy defined eleven regions, which are divided further in the northern regions of the area (Levy 1995). The subdivisions depend on the different materials on which the authors have chosen to base the actual allocations. The rather disparate knowledge about the different areas is partly an effect of a very diverse level of research. Due to the western coast being heavily built up, leading to urbanisation related de- structions and obstructions to excavations, the number of settlements known from there is certainly too low. The eastern desert, conversely, is still understudied, which to some degree is the result of modern preconceptions about the hospitality or lack thereof of this landscape during earlier periods. In both areas small settlements are severely underrepresented in the record. The two regions most thoroughly studied are the Negev and the area of the southern Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea. This has led in both regions to the creation of a regionally influenced terminology, notably Beershevian and Ghassulian are terms frequently used for the Late Chalcolithic material there. These terms, however, are not always clearly defined, but require a lengthy discussion and will not be used here. Some relevant sites for these regions will be introduced further down in some detail (Fig. 1).

3 Material evidence from the Late Chalcolithic

During the 5th and into the 4th millennium BCE an increase both in settlement number and in settlement size is noticeable, even though the character of the sites and excavations makes such a statement difficult. In the Jordan Valley all larger sites are situated where side wadis enter the valley from the plateau while smaller sites are located further up along these same side wadis (Rowan – Golden 2009). The availability of water thus seems to have been an essential point for the choice of location, closely followed by availability of land or size of floodplain (Bourke 2008; ovell radley L – B 2011). In the surrounding of Fig. 2 Small Late Chalcolithic house from Abu the Dead Sea these sites are Kataret es-Samra and Snesleh with entrance to the right (photo: Umm Hammad at the Wadi Zerqa, Ghrubba at Susanne Kerner, 1992). Wadi Nimrin, Tuleilat Ghassul at Wadi ar-Rama / Djaffara and Tell Wadi Feinan in Wadi Feinan to the south. There are clearly large sites such as Tuleilat Ghassul, who also fulfil central functions for other sites in the vicinity, and quite small sites, but due to their irregular distribution it is very difficult to con- struct a regular settlement pattern as such (except possibly in the Negev region). The architecture is quite varied, which again is dependent on region and settlement size. The vernac- ular architecture in the smaller sites (such as Abu Snesleh and Fendi) consists of houses with only one room and possibly a courtyard attached to it (Fig. 2). In larger sites such as Tuleilat Ghassul (Fig. 3) and Shiqmim the houses can have a courtyard with two to four rooms arranged around it. The rooms vary in size (from hardly 2 m in length to 15 m) and often include an internal low bench along one wall, smaller internal partitioning walls, and post-holes in the centre for roof beam supports. The size of the dwellings indicates a smaller, possibly more nucleated family size than seen in the Neolithic or Late Neolithic houses of, e. g., Shar Ha-Golan. The size difference of houses between smaller and larger sites remains unexplained. It could be connected to family size but that would entail the postulation of smaller families in smaller sites and larger families in larger sites, for which there is no other indication. Such a difference in house size could also indicate a larger amount of perished, less permanent dwelling space in the smaller sites. Hearths, earthen pits, silos or large storage vessels (depending on the geological situation of the site) are frequently found associated with the rooms and attached courtyards. Different regions exhibit

Fig. 3 Plan of Tell 3 in Tuleilat Ghassul with silo structures highlighted (after Koeppel 1940, pl. 1).

specialised architecture, such as long parallel chains of rooms in the Golan, and subterranean structures in the loess soil of the Negev. In both cases climate and geology cause and facilitate these different house types. The economic base of the Chalcolithic consists of a mixed subsistence, while the frequent presence of large storage capacities indicates an increase in agricultural and / or pastoral productivity. In Pella and Abu Hamid large semi-subterranean pithoi have been excavated, which measure over 1 m in depth. In Tuleilat Ghassul all houses have silo structures (Fig. 3). In the Golan, where the ground consists of very hard basalt, subterranean silos were only rarely constructed, instead large pithoi were in use. Einkorn and emmer wheat, six- and two-rowed barley, chickpeas, lentils, and peas were the main components of the vegetable food. Particularly towards the end, agriculture was supported by simple irrigation (Rowan – Golden 2009, 23 f.). Domestic olives appear for the first time (Lovell – Bradley 2011), and olive oil might have been produced. Date, fig, almond, walnut, and pistachio were also domesticated. Faunal assemblages are dominated by domesticated sheep and goat. Cattle, though not the most numerous, is the main meat provider in many sites, while the distribution of pigs is varied. In Tuleilat Ghassul sheep and goat are with 77 % the most common animals, followed by 14.5 % cattle and 8.5 % pig (Bourke et al. 2000). Pigs appear generally in smaller numbers and are more common further north, most likely illustrating the effect of different environmental conditions. Yet pigs did exist in Grar and Gilat with over 10 % (Grigson 1995; 2006). Wild animals played only a small role in the daily food supply, which is also attested by the small amount of arrowheads in the lithic assemblages. The use of pack animals is indicat- ed by a number of clay figurines such as the one from En-Gedi (see below) and the possible identification of donkeys in the animal bone assemblage (Grigson 1995). Evidence from Gilat suggests that herding strategies focused on milk and meat, while meat would have been the first priority in Grar followed by milk production (Grigson 1995, 257; 2006). Pottery is characterised by a standardisation of fabrics (Commenge-Pellerin 1987; 1990) and a wide array of functionally different shapes, which indicate the functional diversity of society (Com- menge 2006; Kerner 2001). Pottery production techniques expanded, and the manufacturing techniques included wheel use, slab, coil, and composite techniques. The open shapes include V-shaped bowls of different sizes (Fig. 4,9. 10), pithoi (Fig. 4,6), pedestalled fenestrated stands, basins, and large bowls; restricted forms include hole-mouths jars (Fig. 4,5. 7), globular pots, and necked jars. Spindle-shaped necked vessels, usually called churns (Fig. 4,8), are less common, but often considered typical due to

Fig. 4 Schematic drawings of Late Chalcolithic pottery: 1 – 4 cornets; 5. 7 hole mouth jars; 6 pithos; 8 churn; 9. 10 bowls; 11 so-called torpedo jar (after Com- menge-Pellerin 1987; Garfinkel 1999; digitisation: Hugh Barnes). their recognisable shape, even though they appear in very varying numbers in the different regions (Gar- finkel 1999). The same is true for cornets (Fig. 4,1 – 4), mostly pointed-based, which have an irregular distribution as they are common in sites with cultic structures (such as En-Gedi), but also in small sites such as Grar. Particularly fine fabrics are used for special purpose vessels such as very large churns, which might have been too large for any practical purposes, and certain small jars. These correlations between form and fabric indicate the existence of specialist production (Kerner 2001). Trade in pottery between sites is confirmed for ‘special wares’ such as the ‘Cream Ware’ vessels traded from the northern Negev sites to, e. g., Ghassul (Roux – Courty 1998). The other example of traded, or possibly better, transported pottery is the so-called torpedo-jar, which is only found in Gilat but was produced in several different places (Gilead – Goren 1989; Goren 2006). This particular ceramic shape was probably used for the transport of olive oil. Even though it was produced outside Gilat, it was only used for bringing something into Gilat, thus underlining the importance of Gilat as a regional centre that attracted people to travel there with offerings.

The knapped and ground stone tools were used for a variety of functions that relate both to completely mundane and ritual activities, without an easy way to differentiate between these in every case. The distribution pattern of both stone materials is again regionally diverse. Flint assemblages exhibit broadly similar frequencies of flake production for general tools with much smaller quantities of specialized types, some are manufactured at specialized sites or workshops (e. g. fan-scrapers). Star-shaped flint tools occur in low frequencies and are geographically limited (mostly but not exclusively to the Jordan Valley); they have been interpreted as shearing instru ments, but have also been assigned a possible cultic meaning (Rosenberg – Shimelmitz 2017). Ground stone artefacts include the same items used since the earliest periods such as grinding slabs, handstones, mortars and pestles. Basalt bowls, some decorated, appear in low numbers but have a wide distribution (Rowan – Golden 2009). The basalt sourcing indicates an origin of the raw material from the Golan or Kerak area (Philip – Williams-Thorpe 2001), but as little production remains have been found, the vessels – not the raw material – might have been transported. The basalt vessels are a very good example of items, which might have been used in everyday contexts, but changed their meaning when used as, e. g., incense burners in ritual contexts (Chasan – Rosenberg 2017). The most remarkable material remains are the hundreds of copper items, which seemingly again fall into both functional and ritual categories and will be discussed below. 1

4 The wider Dead Sea region

The central and southern Jordan Valley, the banks of the Dead Sea, the northern Negev and the northern part of the Wadi ‘Arabah include several important Chalcolithic sites, of which only some can be treated here in detail. The sites of Wadi Farah North and Abu Hamid form more or less the northern border of the region, Tuleilat Ghassul, En-Gedi and Naḥal Mishmar are directly in the Dead Sea region; the sites in the northern Negev (Gilat, Shiqmim, Abu Matar, Horvat Beter, Bir es-Safadi) constitute their own cultural cluster, which needs to be treated on a comparative level. The area of Wadi Feinan / Wadi Fidan south of the Dead Sea has to be considered in any discussion of ritual and social complexity during the period, as the raw copper used for some of the copper items stems from there. In the following, some sites will be discussed in detail, while others can only be mentioned in comparison.

4.1 Tuleilat Ghassul

The largest site in the Dead Sea region is Tuleilat Ghassul, situated northeast of the Dead Sea at 295 m below sea level. This large site is today hardly visible in the landscape as it consists of a number of small tells that originally stood only a little above the surrounding terrain which has now filled up with alluvium (Hennessy 1969, 21). The site covers roughly 24 ha (which was not all settled) and has been studied in four large projects since the 1930s. The first project was carried out by Alexis Mallon, Robert Koeppel and René Neuville (Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome) between 1929 and 1938 (Mallon et al. 1934; Koeppel 1940). These excavations took place at tell 1 and 3 and uncovered many architectural features, although the stratigraphic context is not always clear. The next project in 1960 was under Robert North (1961), who, like the excavators before him, did not consider the stratigraphical problems caused by the frequent earthquakes in the region. This changed in the late 1960s when the University of Sydney under Basil Hennessy and then again in the 1990s under Stephen Bourke started stratigraphically much better controlled excavations. These projects led to the investigation of functionally very different parts of the site, and particularly the latest mission took great care in collecting palaeobotanical and palaeozoological material for further analysis (Hennessy 1969; 1982; Bourke 1997; 2002; Bourke et al. 1995; 2000; 2007).

1 The reasons for the large amount of attention given to the 500 or so copper items compared to the 100,000s of pottery vessels lie certainly in their special meaning, but also in the modern values given to different materials today.

The published domestic architecture, spread across 3,500 m², is mostly from the earliest project and features in tell 1 houses consisting of a courtyard, often irregularly shaped, with two to four rooms around it. All houses have working platforms, small silos and hearths. Tell 3 has some similar buildings, but in the northwest corner is an unusual row of rooms, and in room 78 (at the highest point of the tell) the “Processional” wall painting was found. More wall paintings were excavated on tell 3, some showing up to 20 renewals. These include the “Processional”, the “Tiger”, the “Star”, the “Bird” and several masks, which all display some common elements (Drabsch 2015). On tell 5 (or Area E) a cultic complex was excavated, which consisted of a larger and a smaller broadroom, which are unconnected and stood perpendicular to each other. From the larger room a short path leads to an altar of semicircular shape and the whole construction is surrounded by a temenos wall. Other functionally different areas comprise an industrial complex in Area E, a painter’s workshop in Area F and a stonecutter’s workshop in Area A (Bourke 1997; Seaton 2008). The pottery in Tuleilat Ghassul (Lovell 2001) consists of V-shaped bowls, the most numerous category, jars and hole-mouth jars, the latter’s amount increases during the latest phases of the settlement. Churns are very rare in Ghassul, while cornets are regularly present, although in small numbers. Fenestrated bowls are only found in and around the sanctuary in Area E and nearly 50 % of all cornets and 60 % of all goblets were found there too. Other unusual ceramic items from the cultic area include ‘double cornets’ (double kernos), pedestalled platters and chalices, clay shaped horns and hollow animal figurines (Seaton 2008). The use of special ceramics in ritual contexts is thus illustrated here quite clearly and the high amount of small drinking vessels (cornets, goblets) might well be connected to the rituals (Kerner 2015). The burial structures of Adeimeh have often been connected with Tuleilat Ghassul. Moshe Steke- lis concluded originally that the tumulus-covered cists and nearby dolmens in the former site were contemporary with Ghassul (Stekelis 1935, 38 f.). However, it is more likely that only the cists, which had also been excavated in parts by René Neuville, formed part of the Chalcolithic cemetery (Neuville 1930).

4.2 Shiqmim

The other large site, which shall be described in some detail, is Shiqmim, situated in the Negev, approximately 17 km west of Beersheba. The site covers an area of 10 ha and consists of an upper and a lower town. In the vicinity of Shiqmim are not just one, but several cemeteries, of which ca. 2000 m² were excavated, while 4500 m² of the settlement were unearthed. The excavations were started in the 1950s by David Alon, but were renewed in the 1980s by Alon and Thomas E. Levy (Levy 1987; Levy et al. 1991a; 1991b; 1994; Levy – Alon 1982; 1985). The domestic dwellings in Shiqmim are also characterised by two to four rectangular rooms around a large courtyard, but in Phase III some subterranean living features existed. Similar structures are known from other contemporary sites in the Negev such as Abu Matar and Horvat Beter (Rowan – Golden 2009). They were most likely contemporary with the above ground architecture and used for storage, possibly through the hottest part of the year. 2 In Shiqmim the usual mix of V-shaped bowls, hole-mouth jars and a variety of churns were found, but no cornets. In Shiqmim and other Negev sites several copper items and ivory figurines were excavated. The faunal remains contain 89 % sheep and goat, 11 % cattle and only very few other specimen (Grigson 1987). No pig bones were found, as the extremely dry climate would make pig farming difficult. Simple catchment irrigation might have been used (Rosen 1987). In the upper village two semicircular open-air altars were excavated, which have so far only been published very cursorily.

2 Summer temperatures in Beersheba can easily rise above 40 °C; the author visited during November, when 30 °C were reached during midday.

The Shiqmim cemeteries are located relatively close to the village and consist of cists and grave circles. Approximately 100 mortuary structures were recorded (Levy – Alon 1982; 1985; 1987). The grave circles vary in size, between 1.15 and 3 m in outside diameter, depending on the number of individuals buried within. The remaining substance is made from limestone, but there might have been mudbrick su- perstructures. The second type of mortuary structure at the Shiqmim cemeteries are the stone-lined cists, only found in cemetery III and IV. They were roughly 2 m long and did not contain any bones. Instead, they very often held one V-shaped bowl and might have worked as “skeleton preparation pits” where the corpses were placed to decompose (Levy – Alon 1987). The temporal connection between cists and circles cannot, however, be established with certainty. The circles contain mostly secondary burials of adults, which can be placed in various ways and containers. Some were even interred in ossuaries, Chal- colithic urns used mostly in cave burials. There seem to be slightly more men buried in the grave circles than women, but a high amount of the skeletons could not be sexed. A few individual adults and nearly all infants were buried in underfloor burials inside the village of Shiqmim and many of those were primary burials.

4.3 Naḥal Mishmar

The Judean Desert and Mountains contain a number of caves, which have been used through many periods as dwellings, hiding and burial places. The cave of Naḥal Mishmar (Cave of the Treasure) is possibly one of the best known ones, as it not only contains Chalcolithic material, but also remains from the Jewish revolt in Roman times (Bar-Adon 1980). Accessible only with great difficulties today, it might once have been a little easier to reach (Bar-Adon 1980, 3). The main room of the cave (cave 1) spans an area of 158 m² with many niches and side tunnels going off to caves 2 and 3. The Chalcolithic levels with a depth of up to 2 m contained fireplaces with ash, everyday items such as hole-mouth and storage jars, churns and bowls. Ground stones, blades, chisels, bone awls and several items belonging to spinning and weaving tools were also found, all giving the impression of a normal dwelling. The organic material included flax, wool, mats, baskets, ropes and the remains of leather clothes. Wheat, barley, lentils, on- ions, garlic, olives, dates and animal bones were also preserved in the very dry desert climate. This author would thus assume that these caves were used as normal dwellings, but lately the theory of refuge use has been brought up again (Davidovich 2013). Nevertheless, it was the hoard find in a niche covered by mats that gave the cave its name: 430 objects including six hematite mace-heads, five decorated ivory sickles, one small ivory box, a stone and 417 copper objects. This is by far the largest find of copper items in the entire Levant during the Chalcolithic period (it forms approximately 82 % of all copper finds from that period). The copper items are very varied and include 17 so-called tools such as chisels and axes, 256 mace-heads, 119 standards and 10 cylinders. Three small basket-shaped items with large handles, one decorated vase, a bowl and three horn-shaped objects were also made from copper. These items have been studied intensively and form the backbone of many analyses of Chalcolithic metal work (Beck 1989; Moorey 1988; Shalev – Northover 1993; Tadmor 1989; Tadmor et al. 1995).

4.4 The En-Gedi cultic building

En-Gedi is also situated in the Judean Desert at 300 m above the Dead Sea. The excavations of Benja- min Mazar and David Ussishkin between 1971 and 1993 showed no evidence for domestic architecture, but for a cultic structure. It consists of a larger broadroom with a smaller broadroom perpendicular to it, with a path leading towards the smaller room, both surrounded by a temenos wall with two gates. In the middle of the walled area, a round structure has been interpreted as the remains of a water basin (Ussishkin 1980, 32; 2014), or, alternatively, as those of a “holy tree” (Mazar 2000). The rooms had doors opening to the inside, and the larger one of the two buildings might have contained an altar. Both rooms had benches along the walls. The amount of finds was relatively low, which led to the idea that En-Gedi had been left by its inhabitants after a relatively short period of habitation. The pottery consists

© 2019, Zaphon, Münster ISBN 978-3-96327-082-6 (Buch) / ISBN 978-3-96327-083-3 (E-Book) The Chalcolithic Period in the Dead Sea Area 165 mostly of small bowls, cornets, beakers and goblets, indicating the connection between consuming and ritual activities. 3 An animal figurine, most likely representing a goat, and carrying two churns on its back was found (Ussishkin 2014). There might have been painted plaster in the buildings (Ussishkin 1980, 31). Ussishkin assumed that the Naḥal Mishmar hoard find originated in En-Gedi (Ussishkin 2014). Gilat, in the northern Negev, is another site with a large cultic building (Levy et al. 2006). It consists of a broadroom with several other structures in the direct vicinity and contained several cultic parapher- nalia such as the famous Gilat Ram and Gilat Lady as well as violin-shaped stones.

4.5 Wadi Feinan

Wadi Feinan is a side wadi to the Wadi ‘Arabah, situated ca. 90 km south of the Dead Sea, but due to its importance for the copper technology of the period, it needs to be taken into any account of Chalcolithic culture in the Southern Levant. The long wadi starting in the east on the Jordanian plateau as Wadi Dana and continuing as Wadi Feinan and finally Wadi Fidan had rich copper sources, which were mined from the Chalcolithic to the Byzantine period (Hauptmann 2007) with a high point during the Iron Age. There are settlements from the Neolithic to the Mamluk period in the wadi (Hauptmann 2007; Hauptmann – Weisgerber 1987; Najjar et al. 1990; Weisgerber – Hauptmann 1988). Copper has been found in three geological formations, which are mostly stratified in horizontal layers above each other. During the Chalcolithic the copper ore was mined in pits close to the surface from the Cambrian Sandstone and transported to the villages in the Negev, where remains of production involving Levantine ore have been found. Only at the very end of the Chalcolithic or in the Transitional period (from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age) (Kerner 2010) small villages inside Wadi Feinan such as Wadi Fidan 4 (Adams – Genz 1994) began to use the local ore in small-scale house production close to the raw material sources. The situation changed during the Early Bronze Age, when the better (easier to smelt) ore from the Dolomite-Limestone-Shelf layers was mined in deeper shafts. Sever- al smelting and production sites developed during the Bronze Age including the very large site of Khirbet Hamra Ifdan (Levy et al. 2002), bearing witness to the changes in metal use and production between the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age. A small amount of copper ore might also have come from Timna‘, which is further south on the western side of the Wadi ‘Arabah, geologically essentially the same copper deposit, but historically more in use in later times (Kerner 2001).

5 Metal finds and metal production 4

This is not the place to summarise the extensive research on metallurgy in the Southern Levant, thus the discussion will focus on those aspects of copper production, which played a role in the social and political make-up of the Late Chalcolithic. 5 The finds include those categories, which have already been mentioned in connection with the finds from Naḥal Mishmar: mace-heads, standards, cylinders (sometimes also called crowns), some specific items only found in Naḥal Mishmar, so-called tools in the shape of chisels and axes as well as wire, slag and other production remains. 6 In Abu Matar, Neve Noy / Bir Safadi, Horvat Beter and Shiqmim in the Negev several kilos of malachite (copper ore), stone equipment for metal production, tuyeres, crucibles and some slag were found (Golden 2009; Shugar 2000). Copper finds come from all the sites with production remains and from Naḥal Mishmar, Naḥal Zeelim, Umm Qatafa, Peqi’in, Naḥal Qanah, Makuch, Arad, Gilat, Abu Hamid, Tuleilat Ghassul, Pal-

3 It is very difficult to differentiate between the rim fragments of small bowls and cornets. 4 The discussion of metal will concentrate on copper, and omit the electron rings from Naḥal Qanah (Gopher – Tsuk 1996). 5 For further discussions see Golden 1998, Hauptmann 2007, Kerner 2010. 6 A precise overview can be found in Kerner 2001, supplemented by Jonathan Golden (2014). Altogether, we are dealing with probably just over 500 finds.

© 2019, Zaphon, Münster ISBN 978-3-96327-082-6 (Buch) / ISBN 978-3-96327-083-3 (E-Book) 166 Susanne Kerner mahim and Tell Maqass. Analyses of the different copper finds have shown that, generally speaking, two different raw materials were used, the pure copper from the copper ore in Wadi Feinan and an alloy containing arsenic, antimony and nickel (Hauptmann 2007). The latter came in two versions with either more arsenic or more nickel, but in neither case was the raw material available in the Southern Levant. Initially, the possibility of an import of the metallurgical objects made from this alloy was discussed, but there is now a general agreement that the production of the metallurgical objects was indeed carried out in the Southern Levant (Gilead – Gošic´ 2015). The indisputable reasons for this lie in the symbolic language of the metal objects, which corresponds closely to that of other material categories (such as pottery, ossuaries and basalt stands). To these typological arguments can be added a growing number of chemical analyses, which prove that local stones and clays were used in the production of the copper items (Goren 2008; 2014). The copper items from the Late Chalcolithic Southern Levant also show three highly significant dichotomies, which need to be taken into account when discussing their production and meaning: 1) Mace-heads, standards, cylinders or baskets (the so-called prestige objects) constitute ca. 82 % of the finds while the remaining 18 % are made up of adzes, awls (the so-called tools), wires and production remains. The overwhelming majority of these finds come from one findspot: the Naḥal Mishmar hoard. This situation makes a construction of distribution patterns impossible. 2) The majority of so-called prestige items is fashioned from an arsenic (nickel / antimony) copper alloy, which was most likely imported from some distance away and produced by means of the lost-wax method. 7 The so-called tools, on the other hand, consist nearly completely of the local copper ore of Wadi Feinan and are made by a technologically much simpler method – in open moulds. Furthermore, a number of the so-called tools show an arsenic content that is too high for the local ore, but much lower than the usual content in the imported ore (Shugar 2000; Kerner 2010). 3) Nearly all production remains such as slag, remains in crucibles etc. stem from the local copper ore. All Chalcolithic production remains come from villages and towns in the Negev (Fig. 1). The meaning of the copper items shall be considered first. The mace-heads, standards, cylinders and other easily recognisable items (vases, baskets), overwhelmingly made from imported copper, were found for the most part at one site in Naḥal Mishmar, but mace-heads and standards have also been found in other sites. The sheer number of mace-heads (around 300), together with the fact that they are not made to look individual, sets them apart from the other items mentioned above. The standards (over 100) and the cylinders (10) are less numerous and particularly the standards are all individually shaped and decorated. Standards and mace-heads were both produced in the lost-wax method, which means that each item had its own mould, and thus the choice to make mace-heads indistinguishable and standards recognisable was consciously made. A possible pyramid of symbolic meaning could be imagined, with the mace-heads on the lowest level, characterised by the largest number and thus potentially the widest distribution, but a non-identifiable character (Fig. 5). This would be followed by the standards, in smaller, but still large numbers, each one recognisable and produced with a larger amount of labour. And the highest level would be taken up by the cylinders and singular items. Whether these levels of symbolic importance stood for a hierarchical order (e. g. heads of households, heads of villages, heads of clans) or a different meaning in cultic activities will remain unclear until a production site has been found or a more precise distribution pattern can be discerned. The so-called tools are most likely not tools, as their production method does not provide them with sufficient hardness to be used as such (Kerner 2001; Gilead – Gošic´ 2015), so it is plausible to consider them also as prestige items. They would work in a different sphere of prestige, as they would not compete with the other copper items but with stone implements such as other chisels and axes. The production of the copper items is the second unresolved question. The only existing workshops are in villages such as Abu Matar and Shiqmim (all in the Negev), where production remains of pure copper ore and small amounts of the alloyed copper with very low rates of impurities (arsenic) have been found. This points to a small-scale production of the so-called tools, possibly mixing locally available ore with some leftover imported alloy. There is hitherto no sign for any production involving the

7 The method is very well explained in Goren 2014.

imported ore with arsenic (nickel). We thus have the frustrating, yet nevertheless accurate fact that the majority of copper items, which are recog- nised as prestige items, were manufactured at an unknown location. This might imply a segregated production: a production under controlled conditions, where the so-called prestige objects would have been manufactured from imported materials in the lost-wax method, and on the other hand a less controlled production, where local (Wadi Feinan) copper ore was cast into items resembling tools. Such a division between the two production modes would explain the archaeological pattern Fig. 5 Diagram showing the possible hierarchical found so far, but could only be proven if at least importance of metal finds (diagram: Susanne one production site using primarily imported ore Kerner). would be found. The same workmen would have carried out the production, but spatially segregated and under very different socio-political conditions. The production and distribution of the prestige items could thus have been controlled and kept its mystical air, in analogy to many ethnographic cases, where smiths are considered to have very special abilities. The copper items could, of course, have been used in ritual practices (Gilead – Gošic´ 2014), as rituals played a large role in the Late Chalcolithic (see above).

6 Summary

The Late Chalcolithic culture in the Southern Levant has many connecting elements, expressed in architecture, pottery and stone tools. Even the symbolic language can be compared across different materials: the basalt stands from the Golan and the ossuaries in the different cemeteries have compatible facial features, which often include the nose, sometimes the eyes and hardly ever a mouth. The size and number of settlements have increased compared to earlier periods. Nearly all known cultic buildings were found in the two regions discussed here, the Negev and the Dead Sea region, namely in Tuleilat Ghassul, Shiqmim, En-Gedi and Gilat. Open-air and cave-based cemeteries become common and show a rich rep- ertoire of grave goods, which are difficult to pinpoint to specific burials, as the graves in many open-air cemeteries have several bodies interred together, while the burials in the caves are extremely difficult to excavate. Expressions of cultic identity, ivory figurines, basalt stands, and hollow ceramic vessels are regionally different, only the violin-shaped figurines seem to be very widely distributed. Some specific ceramic forms, which have at least a second meaning in addition to their simple functional use, such as churns and cornets, are unequally distributed regionally. The southern Jordan Valley and the area around the Dead Sea show one of the most complete Chalcolithic repertoires, while the region around Beersheba is noticeable for its metal production. The grave goods in each cemetery range from everyday pottery to prestigious metal finds, the presence of the latter indicating a system of prestige objects. The hamlets and villages do not support a hierarchical order of the inhabitants, as house size seems to depend more on the settlement size. The Dead Sea is now decreasing in size every year, but it has retained its general shape since the 5th millennium BCE, although the sea level fluctuated and thus influenced the regional climate. At the end of the Chalcolithic and beginning of the Early Bronze Age, the Dead Sea shows one of those interludes which indicate a drier climate, possibly causing small-scale drought. This might have played a role in ending the flourishing Late Chalcolithic culture. Another contributing reason may be found in a change of trading routes and connections, as the alloyed copper ceases nearly completely at the end of the Late Chalcolithic. Early Bronze Age copper items are made differently.

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