Eur asian Pre history, 7 (1): 129–151.

THE FIRST TWO EX CAVA TION SEA SONS AT NMO: A MOUSTE RIAN SITE AT THE BANK OF THE JOR RIVER

Gonen Sharon1, Leore Grosman1, Hannah Fluck2, Yoel Melamed3, Yoel Rak4, Rivka Rabinovich5 and Maya Oron1

1 In sti tute of Ar chae ol ogy, The He brew Uni ver sity of Je ru sa lem, Mt. Scopus, 91905 Je ru sa lem, Is rael; [email protected] 2 Cen tre for the Ar chae ol ogy of Hu man Ori gins, Uni ver sity of Southampton, Highfield SO17 1BJ, United King dom 3 The Mina and Everard Good man Fac ulty of Life Sci ences, Bar-Ilan Uni ver sity, Ramat-Gan 52900, 4 Anat omy and An thropol ogy De partment, Fac ulty of Med i cine, Tel Aviv Uni ver sity, Ramat Aviv, Is rael 5 Na tional Nat u ral His tory Col lec tions, The He brew Uni ver sity of Je ru sa lem, Je ru sa lem, Is rael

Ab stract The Mousterian site at the Outlet of Nahal Mahanayeem to the Jordan River (NMO) was discov ered as a result of a drainage oper a tion north of Gesher Benot Ya´aqov in the Southern . Survey and surface collec tion brought to light the presence of a rich lithic as semblage ascribed primar ily to the Middle Paleolithic, Mousterian lithic tradi tion. Sig- nifi cant pre-exca va tion finds include a fragment of human skull and the skull and femur of a lion. In this paper, we present the data collected prior to exca va tion and the results of the first two ex cava tion seasons at the NMO Mousterian site.

Key words: Mousterian, Gesher Benot Ya´aqov, open-air site, flora, human remains.

the east bank of the Jordan River ca. 100 meters IN TRO DUC TION south of the present day arti fi cial channel outlet of In the fall of 1999, the Kinneret Drainage Au- Nahal Mahanayeem (the Mahanayeem Stream) thor ity un der took a large drain age op er a tion into the Jordan (Fig. 1; Co ordi nates: 33°001’40’’N/ aimed at deepen ing the chan nel of the Jordan 35°037’50’’E). In the sum mer of 2002, a geo-ar- River between the Pkak Bridge and the Ateret chae o log i cal sur vey of sec tions of the Jor dan Fortress (Fig. 1; and see Sharon et al., 2002 for River bank in the vicin ity of Gesher Benot Ya´a- de tails). A large vol ume of sed iment was re - qov was conducted. moved, dam ag ing the Early-Mid dle Pleis to cene The pre lim inary study in the vicin ity of what depos its of the Benot Ya’akov Forma tion, as well is now known as the site of Nahal Mahanayeem as the Late Pleis to cene Ashmora For ma tion com- Outlet (NMO) exposed the great poten tial of the prising the upper portion of the geolog i cal se- site for fur ther in ves ti ga tion. Ac cord ingly, two quence in this section of the river (Horowitz, sea sons of ex cava tion were car ried out at the site 1979). during the fall of 2007 and 2008. The seasons Dur ing the drain age op er a tion, the pres ence were planned and exe cuted to address the follow - of many stone tools and bones in mint condi tion ing pri mary research ques tions: 1) to estab lish the within the piles of clay dug from the river trench gen eral geo log i cal stra tig ra phy of the Jor dan was noted. The main con centra tion of archae o log- River bank at the site’s vi cin ity; 2), to prove the ical finds was observed in the sed iment piles on ac tual pres ence of in situ ar chae o log i cal ho ri zons 130 G. Sharon et al.

Fig. 1. Loca tion of the NMO Site The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 131 given that the ar chae o log ical finds were all col - lected from the piles of damped sedi ments and from the Jordan River banks surface; 3) To ex - plore the na ture of the ar chae o log i cal lay ers and their distri bu tion; and 4) to assess the preser va tion condi tion of the lithic, fauna and flora assem - blages. During these two ex cava tion sea sons, an ar- chae o log i cal ho ri zon was ex posed con tain ing many finds assigned to the Middle Paleolithic. An i mal bones in ex cel lent state of pres er va tion were un cov ered and the rich bo tan i cal as sem blage of wood, seeds and fruits estab lished the poten tial of the NMO site for the study of the region’s paleo-en vi ron ment. In ad di tion, a gen eral geo log- ical stra tig ra phy was es tab lished for the NMO lo - cality as well as smaller a scale stra tig ra phy for the ar chae o log i cal lay ers. The purpose of this pa per is twofold: to re port on the results and sig nifi cant finds from the pre-exca va tion survey of the site and to present Fig. 2. a. The hu man skull frag ment from NMO; b. Fos sil ized bone frag ment su per im posed on a mod ern pre lim i nary re sults from the two first ex ca va tion calva- rium to show the fragment’s ana tom i cal loca tion sea sons at NMO. The study of the NMO site is in its pri mary stages, yet we have suf fi cient in for ma - tion to present the finds from the site as seen to- day keeping in mind that, as with any archae o log- nal bone tables. Cleaning confirmed our orig inal ical site, some of the views and sugges tions im pression that the bone is that of a hominid presented here may look very differ ent in light of calvarium. The fragment consists mainly of the the re sults of fu ture re search. left pa ri etal and bears the an terior sec tion of the sagittal su ture and the eroded lat eral (left) part of the co ronal su ture. Adja cent to the sagittal suture lie the re mains of the medial part of the right pa ri - SURVEY RESULTS AND etal bone. The break along the broken lateral edge PRE-EXCA VA TION FINDS of the right pari etal is fresh. The edge of the rest The human skull fragment of the frag ment is coated with the brec cia-like in - The large piles of sedi ments dumped onto the crus ta tion. banks of the Jordan River during the 1999 drain- Align ing the re mains of the sagittal suture age work were left untouched until their removal with the midline re veals the ex act an atom i cal lo- in 2003. While remov ing a pile from the west cation of the fragment: it extends from just be hind bank of the Jordan im medi ately south of the bregma (which is not preserved) to a point Nahal Mahanayeem out let (Fig. 1), Is rael An tiq - slightly ante rior to obelion (Fig. 2b). The antero- uity Au thor ity in spec tor O. Barzilai collected poste rior length of the fragment is about 75 mm, large quanti ties of bones and stone tools. Among and its bi lat eral width is about 62 mm. Its thick- the bones, a fragment of human skull was identi - ness at the remain ing ante rior end of the sagittal fied (Fig. 2a). These sedi ments proba bly origi - suture is 5 mm; poste ri orly, the bone thickens nated from the west river bank, from an unknown slightly, reaching 7 mm at the poste rior end of the depth. sur viv ing sagittal su ture. The fos sil bone fragment is part of a brain- The frag ment weighs 30 grams and is 34% case. A hard, reddish brown, breccia-like incrus - heavier than a dry fragment em anat ing from the tation covered the fragment’s inter nal and exter - dissec tion room and compa ra ble in size, thick- 132 G. Sharon et al.

The lithic ar tifacts as so ci ated with the human skull A se lec tion of tools col lected from the same pile of sedi ments from which the fragment of hu- man skull was found is shown in Fig. 4. This col - lec tion contains at least two lithic compo nents. The first group (Fig. 4: 2–4) is of Levallois Mous- terian ori gin and includes several tool types made on Levallois flakes and blades. The second com - ponent is possi bly Upper Paleolithic (UP) or even Early Epi-Paleolithic (Fig. 4: 1, 5–8). The UP tools include vari ous types of end-scrap ers made mainly on blade blanks, burin on trunca tion and re touched blades. The small sample size col lected from the pile does not al low a clear-cut def i ni tion Fig. 3. Endocranial as pect of the fossil ized bone of the assem blage. How ever, at least two dif fer ent frag ment, showing the deep fossae for the arachnoid lithic in dus tries, one of Mid dle Paleolithic and the gran u la tions other proba bly of Upper Paleolithic ori gin are repre sented. This view is consis tent with the ob- ness, and an a tom i cal lo ca tion. This dis crep ancy serva tion by Goren-Inbar & Alperson-Afil (per- in di cates a sub stan tial de gree of min er al iza tion of sonal com mu ni ca tion) of the as sem blage col- the fossil fragment. lected from piles of sedi ments from the east bank The sagittal su ture is par tially vis ible; only of the Jordan within 50 meters from the human the ante rior portion can be seen, and only on the skull pile. exocranial as pect. Endocranially, the en tire length of the su ture is oblit er ated. This con fig u ra tion in- The pre-ex ca va tion fauna dicates that at death, the indi vid ual was an adult of Most of the bones col lected at the site are in ad vanced age. We can see ev idence of the age in ex cel lent state of pres er va tion (Fig. 5). Nu mer ous the deeply ex cavated fossae for the arachnoid fresh breaks, proba bly result ing from the heavy granu lations on both sides of the midline (Fig. 3). machin ery digging, were also observed. The bone Also on the endocranial aspect, well-marked as semblage was col lected from the piles of sed i- grooves for the ante rior branch of the middle ments and the geo-ar chae o log i cal con text of most men in geal ar tery and its sec ond bi fur ca tion are of them cannot be recon structed. Hence, only visi ble. The bone surface of the exocranial table is gen eral ob ser va tions con cern ing the whole as- del i cate and smooth, bear ing no man i fes ta tion of semblage can be pre sented. The spe cies and their the tempo ral lines. This topog ra phy, along with fre quency rep re sented at the site are pre sented in the slen der and gracile ap pear ance of the bone, Table 1. The rich diver sity of species and their ex- suggests that the fragment belongs to a female. cel lent state of preser va tion encour aged us to un- A coro nal cross section halfway down the earth the in situ re mains. fragment re veals that the summit of the calvarium The bone sample studied (N = 321, Table 1) was rather flat and that the bone sur face curves includes aurochs (Bos primigenius. Fig. 5), moun- abruptly 2 cm lateral to the sagittal suture and tain ga zelle (Gazella gazella), red deer (Cervus slopes downward to ward the tem po ral bone. This elapahus), Mesopotamian fallow deer (Dama curve creates a slight angulation of the contour. mesopotamica), boar (Sus scrofa), hip po pot a mus Given this topog raphy, the fragment is not likely (Hip po pot a mus amphibius), canid (Canis sp.) and to be from a Neandertal calvarium, whose cor re - lion (Panthera leo). Antler frag ments were as- spond ing co ro nal cross-sec tion is char ac ter ized signed to Cervidae and horn core fragments to by a con tin u ous (un seg mented), rounded co ro nal Bovidae. The rest of the fauna could only be as- contour extend ing from one side of the calvarium signed to body size groups of (Table 1): Bos, to the other. Cervus, Dama and Ga zelle bones. Body rep resen - The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 133

Fig. 4. Lithic ar ti facts found in as soci a tion with the hu man skull frag ment tations include both cranial (antlers, horn cores, gen eral trend re mains the same: cervids and maxillary teeth) and postcranial ele ments (ribs, bovids are the most common species. ver te brae, limbs, pha lan ges). Ad di tion ally, a few The spe cies rep re sented in the cur rent sample car a pace frag ments of tur tle (Tes tudo sp.) and two are largely simi lar to that of numer ous Southern bird bone fragments were uncov ered. The data Levantine Mous terian and Upper Paleolithic sites pre sented here pro vide ad di tional in for ma tion to (Rabinovich, 2003; Stiner, 2005; Tchernov, that pub lished earlier (Sharon et al., 2002), yet the 1988). Yet, of par ticu lar in ter est are a few rare 134 G. Sharon et al.

Ta ble 1 Fauna from the NMO site

Spe cies N Gazella gazela 7 Bos primigenius 42 Cervus elaphus 10 Dama mesopotamica 19 Sus scrofa 3 Hip po pot a mus am phib i ous 1 Canis sp. 1 Panthera leo 2 Bovidae 6 Cervidae 9 Fig. 5. Bos distal hu merus fragment col lected from surface at NMO BSGB (Bos size) 34 BSGC (Cervus size) 44 BSGD (Dama size) 62 BSGE (Gazela size) 6 spe cies. The pres ence of hip po pot a mus (rep re- Testudo sp. 4 sented by a sin gle tooth frag ment) in this Upper Bird 2 Pleisto cene as semblage is a quite rare phe nome - Un iden ti fied bones 69 non, which revives an old debate concern ing the To tal 321 survival of this species along the Levantine coast ver sus its dis ap pear ance in land (Horwitz and Tchernov, 1990). Re cently, con tin u ous pres ence of hip po pot a mus along the Jor dan Val ley dur ing Ad di tional bone frag ments, in clud ing a bovid the later Pleis to cene and Ho lo cene was ob served mo lar, were found next to the lion bones. No (Rabinovich, per sonal ob ser va tion). stone tools were found in the im medi ate vicin ity of the bones, although a few flint flakes were The lion skull and femur found during other visits to the site, embed ded in During the 2002 survey, a skull of a lion the same black clay. Large felids are rare in ar- (Panthera leo, Fig. 6) and a lion fe mur (Fig. 7) chae o log i cal sites of all pe ri ods. In the pre his toric were ex cavated from the banks of the Jordan Levant, lion bones are known primar ily from River at the NMO site (Fig. 1). The skull was Qafzeh Cave (Dayan, 1989; Rabinovich, 2002, found in situ em bed ded in black, or gan i cally rich 2003). clay and the fe mur was ex cavated imme di ately be low it. EX CA VA TION RE SULTS The bones are in ex cellent state of pres er va - As stated above, the aim of the first ex cava - tion. The femur was found complete and was bro- tion sea son at the NMO site (2007) was to estab - ken during exca va tion. The skull was found bro- lish the stratigraphic context and to gain better un- ken into many small pieces with some fragments der stand ing of the na ture of the ar chae o log i cal missing, proba bly due to the activ ity of heavy me- oc cur rences in this lo cal ity. The ex ca va tion took chan i cal equip ment at this lo cal ity. Part of the left place on the east bank of the Jordan River, oppo - nasal bone is missing, and a distor tion was ob- site the out let of Nahal Mahanayeem to the Jor dan served towards the left part of the skull. The gen- from the west. The ex cava tion included the fol- eral outline of the skull and its size suggest a male lowing (see Fig. 8): lion. The com pleteness of the femur is quite rare 1. hree small exca va tion ar eas, ar eas A to C in ar chae o log i cal as sem blages in the Lev ant. along the banks of the river, in lo cal ities that were Lastly, based on field asso ci a tion and size, the iden ti fied as show ing ar chae o log i cal potential. skull and femur belong to the same ani mal. 2. Ten geo logi cal sec tions along the east bank The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 135

Fig. 6. Five views of the lion skull. a. right view; b. left view; c. frontal view; d. pos te rior view; e. dor sal view of the Jordan River, aiming to achieve a corre - lated stratig ra phy of the study area. 3. A deep geolog i cal trench (Trench I), some 30 meters long and 3.5 meters deep, dug by exca - vator tractor on the flood plain of the river. The data gained from the above exca va tions and sections allow us to estab lish the geolog i cal and stratigraphi cal framework for the NMO lay - Fig. 7. Lion fe mur ers presented below

NMO stratigraphy and geol ogy newly exposed sed iments il lustrate a much more The geo logi cal lay ers north of Gesher Benot compli cated stratigraphy than previously sugges- Ya´aqov and to wards the Hula Valley are all as- ted. signed by Horowitz (1979) to the Ashmora For- The data collected from the clear ing and mation. This forma tion was de fined as com prising study of 10 sections of the river bank combined pri mar ily layers of clay and peat that were sug - with the data from the geolog i cal tractor trench I gested to have been formed by the swampy Lake and the ex ca va tion of three ar chae o log i cal ar eas Hula during the Late Pleisto cene and Holo cene. (Fig. 8) has en abled us to gain pre lim inary un der- As a re sult of the Jordan River trench deepen ing stand ing of the study area’s geol ogy and general during drainage work over the last decades, the stra tig raphy. Fig. 9a presents the com bined draw- Jordan River currently flows in a channel that is a ing of all 10 sec tions dug during the 2007 season. few meters below its course at the begin ning of Fig. 9b is a drawing of the east section of geolog i - the twenti eth century. The data obtained from the cal Trench I. For loca tion of the sections please 136 G. Sharon et al. D

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Fig. 10. Sec tion 3-07 showing the top soil over ly ing Fig. 11. Heavily ex fo li ated ba salt boul ders on the light colored limnic sedi ments bank of the Jor dan River be tween Sec tion 07-2 and 07-3

refer to Fig. 8. When com bining the data from all ments. Prelim i nary study of a geolog i cal core, 10 sources includ ing the 2008 exca va tion of Area D me ters deep, that was drilled ca. 50 me ters south (see be low) a gen eral stratigraphy of NMO can be of the NMO sec tions in di cates the pres ence of a suggested as follows: ba salt flow at this lo cal ity (C. Feibel, per sonal At the south ernmost section of the study area com mu ni ca tion). This might sup port the sug ges- the Jordan Bank is formed by a thick layer of light tion that the boul ders orig inate from a basalt flow. gray limnic sedi ment with lenses of darker brown Further work is needed before any conclu sions clay (Fig. 10). The upper part of this layer is cut can be presented. This layer was proba bly formed by heavy ma chin ery ac tiv ity, and a geo log i cal in a paleo-lake with a wa ter depth of a few meters. trench dug to a depth of 3.5 meters below present In either case, all of our obser va tions have shown day surface did not reach the bot tom of the layer that this layer of limnic sed iments is archaeolo- (Fig. 9b). Em bedded within this layer are oc ca- gically sterile and that the study should focus on sional very large, heavily exfo li ated boulders of the northern section of the study area. ba salt, whose pres ence in this low en ergy ac cu - The light-col ored limnic sedi ments are in mu lat ing sed i ment awaits ex pla na tion. Field ob - sharp ver tical con tact with a layer of large ba salt serva tions did not result in a con clusive expla na - cobbles and boulders to the north. This con tact, tion as to the or igin of these basalt boul ders (Fig. visi ble in both Area B (Fig. 12) and in Geolog i cal 11). It was suggested that they might repre sent the Trench Ia (Fig. 9b) seems to be very sharp and upper part of a basalt flow under ly ing the liminic sudden. At the present state of our knowledge, it sedi ments. On the other hand, they seem to be sur- seems that the best expla na tion for this geolog i cal rounded by the limnic sedi ments and may repre - con tact lies in the pres ence of a tectonic fault line sent a rem nant of flood cov ered by the lime sed i- where the older limnic sedi ments were uplifted, The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 139

Fig. 12. Area B 2007. a. Contact between white limnic sed i ments to the south and ba salt cob bles Layer 5 to the north; b. Area B from the north. Line indi cat ing the verti cal contact between the limnic and basalt lay ers with the ba salt layer repre sent ing a younger O158. This gives an esti mated gradi ent of 1.85 feature. meters over 5 meters. One way to explain this pe- Moving further north, the basalt cobble layer culiar topog ra phy is to suggest that we are look- slants north ward and dra mati cally to the east and ing at a bar (cre ated by a flood?). Yet, Layer 5 is west. The na ture and geomorphological ori gin of comprised of only basalt. The only source for the this basalt layer is one of the main questions the ba salt in the re gion is the ba saltic slopes of the NMO site poses to fu ture re search. The layer is Golan. In addi tion, if as suggested by the rounded com prised of basalt rang ing in size from boulders nature of the cobbles, Layer 5 was depos ited by to peb bles. Ba salt is the sole rock type within this wa ter ac tiv ity, then the land scape to the west does layer. The upper part of the layer includes gener - not al low for such high en ergy accu mu lation. An ally well-rounded cobbles and boulders. When addi tional option is that the unique topog raphy is this thin up per level is re moved, addi tional cob- a re sult of tec tonic ac tiv ity. At the cur rent state of bles and boulders are exposed but they are weath- research this can only be brought as a hypothesis ered and ex fo li ated. Ac cord ing to the ex po sure of for further research. this layer in section 4 (Fig. 8), the degree of An attempt to under stand the nature of Layer weath er ing in creases in depth un til ca. 1 meter be - 5 was ex ecuted by means of exca vat ing 1 square low sur face, where the ba salt has almost entirely meter of the layer to a depth of ca 50–70 cm be- deteriorated into clay. low its surface in square K156 (Fig. 14). The cob- During the 2008 season the nature of the ba- bles were removed one by one, their size mea- salt cob ble layer, Layer 5 (see be low), was fur ther sured and their roundness and level of weather ing stud ied. The layer sur face was exposed in a rel a - recorded. The study has shown that all along the tively large area (Fig. 13). The main fea ture of sec tion exposed, ba salt is the only rock type pres- this layer is its to pog ra phy. The layer is a “pile” or ent in the layer. Be low the first layer of cob bles a “river bar” formed from basalt boulders and that are rel a tively un-ex fo li ated, the de gree of rounded cobbles. It can be described as a small weath ering in creases with depth, and the cobbles hill of basalt slanting in a moder ate slope towards and boulders at a depth of ca 50 cm have almost the north from 59.60 in square K155 to 58.80 in completely de te ri o rated into clay (Fig. 14). This is square K159, result ing in a gradi ent of 80 cm over a somewhat un ex pected re sult; if the weath er ing ca 5 meters. In contrast, to the east, and proba bly of the basalt is atmo spheric, the situ a tion should to the west, the layer slants dra mati cally from have been reversed and the exfo li ation state 59.25 in square K157 to 58.40 in square N157. should have increased to wards the surface. More However, the basalt Layer 5 is also exposed in the work is needed, apparently, in order to answer geolog i cal Trench Ic at a level of 57.40 in square these questions. 140 G. Sharon et al.

Fig. 13. Area D at the end of ex ca va tion, 25.9.08

Fig. 14. a. Basalt dete ri o rated into clay at ca 50 cm below the surface of Layer 5 in square K156; b. Ba salt boul der showing in creas ing de gree of ex fo li a tion (down ward from right to left in the fig ure) The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 141

Fig. 15. General stratig ra phy of the NMO site

On top of the basalt layer is a layer of dark by the Jordan River since the end of drainage clay embed ded with many small pebbles of lime- work in the year 2000. stone. This is the layer contain ing the MP tools A gen eral pre lim i nary re con struc tion of the and ani mal bones. Many of the bones were laying site’s stratig ra phy is presented in Fig. 15. In sum- imme di ately on the ba salt cob bles in its contact mary, the southern section of the study is com- with the overly ing clay. However, the results of prised of a white limnic de posit that is ar chae o - the 2008 ex cava tion dem on strate that this layer is log i cally ster ile. This layer is cut from the north thicken ing to wards the north as the basalt layer is by a layer of basalt cobble and boulders possi bly slanting downward. At this part of the site, the due to a tectonic fault. The northern section of the next layer is comprised of a se ries of or gan ically study shows the fol lowing stratig raphy from top rich, gray clays with areas of oxi dized orange to bottom: spots. Many slick and slide surfaces are visi ble Layer 1 – recent top soil laid by the modern and further study is needed to define the nature of Jor dan River. these clays. An oc ca sional flint ar tifact or bone Layer 2 – chan nel de posit of an old Jordan was found, in most cases as an isolated find. Into River bed com prised of sand and cobbles with nu - this layer of clay cut much younger channels that mer ous mol lusks. The pres ence of ceramic and depos ited sand with numer ous pebbles of lime- metal arti facts dates them to re cent time. stone, flint and basalt. The presence of rolled flint Layer 3 – a series of clays, mostly gray in and limestone pebbles suggest that these are prob- color with occa sional flint tools or bones. ably channels of ancient rivers running from the Layer 4 – the ar chae o log i cal layer con tain ing west into the South Hula Val ley. Eastern (or MP flint tools and many ani mal bones. The finds northern) ori gin for such streams would bear only are concen trated di rectly in the con tact between a ba salt compo nent. These may be the prede ces - Layer 4 and the basalt Layer 5 below it with the sors of the pres ent day Mahanayeem Stream. layer is thicken ing towards the north. Their age can be es timated to few hundred years Layer 5 – basalt cobbles and boulders of un- by the pres ence of ceram ics and lead fish ing net known depth forming the bottom of the strati- weights found in them. Never the less, some of graphic se quence at the site. these chan nels pen e trate quite deep into the clay layers and may be of much earlier age, up to thou - Area A sands of years old. Many stone tools were found This small area comprises the exca va tion of a within these channels includ ing Neo lithic axes, total of 10 square meters along the Jordan River ar row heads and grind ing stones sug gest ing the bank at the northern section of the site (Fig. 8). pres ence of a Neo lithic site in the vi cin ity. Such The five wes tern most squares were par tially un - Neolithic sites were indeed reported from the derwa ter, depend ing upon daily changes in the lower slopes of the ca. 1 km north wa ter level of up to 50 cm as a re sult of arti fi cial of NMO. The stratigraphic se quence of the site is control of the water flow in the Jordan River. The sealed by a layer of top soil, ca 25 cm thick, laid area was se lected for ex ca va tion due to the ex po - 142 G. Sharon et al.

Fig. 16. Area A at the end of the 2007 ex ca va tion sea son

sure of large ba salt cobbles and boulders in the Fig. 17 shows a close-up drawing of the area’s river bank and the numer ous flint tools collected eastern section. The large basalt cobbles and boul- prior to exca va tion. The ex cava tion of Area A ex- ders are embed ded within quartz silt-fine sand posed a series of clay levels, ranging in color from con tain ing many black man ga nese ox ide par ti- gray to black with occa sional large boulders cles. These re sults are compat ible with the wa ter “float ing” within them. These clays are very poor in un dated swampy en vi ron ment. In ter est ingly, in ar chae o log i cal finds. The clay is gen er ally rich the sed i ment con tains zir co nium and ti ta nium, with bo tani cal mate rial, and show many changes most likely origi nat ing from heavy miner als in color and texture. At the lower part of the sec- found within the quartz sand (R. Gross, personal tion a very flat and even “pol ished” sur face was communication 2007). exposed re sult ing proba bly from “slick and slide” In-between the ba salt cobbles and boulders a ac tiv ity of the clay. wealth of flint ar ti facts was ex ca vated. This is, to Within the clay layers a concen tra tion of date, the rich est lithic assem blage ex ca vated from large basalt cobbles and boulders ca. 1.5 meters in the site and its anal ysis is on go ing. Pre limi nary width was ex posed. This con cen tra tion prob a bly obser va tions suggest that while most of the arti - repre sents a buried channel, although the pres- facts are waste products that cannot be typologi- ence of large boul ders in such a small channel cally at tributed with cer tainty to any lithic tra di - suggests that the geomorphological nature of this tion, a few very dis tinct Up per Paleolithic (UP) channel is com pli cated. Fig. 16 presents a general arti facts were found. This assem blage might be view of Area A at the end of ex cava tion, while the source of the UP ar tifacts col lected from the The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 143

Fig. 17. Section drawing of Area A east section piles of sedi ments dug by heavy machin ery dur - prised mostly of ar chae o log i cally ster ile lay ers, ing the drainage oper a tion in 1999 (Sharon et al., repre sent ing the margins for the expo sure of the 2002; Goren-Inbar, per sonal com mu ni ca tion). MP layers of the site. The contri bu tion of Area B Most of the ar ti facts are made on light gray flint to our under stand ing of the NMO site geol ogy which lacks the dark patina typ ical of many of the and general stra tig raphy is im portant and will be Mid dle Paleolithic ar ti facts col lected from the discussed in the geol ogy section below. Yet, in site. They are also very fresh, showing no evi - terms of the ar chae ol ogy, the area has very little to dence for weath er ing caused by wa ter trans por ta- of fer and was closed within a few days of ex cava - tion. Bones are practi cally absent from this area. tion. Further exca va tion and the enlargement of the sample are needed in order to clarify observa- Area C tions. It be came clear af ter ex cavat ing the river bank sections and Area B, that in order to find the Area B MP layer of the site, it was neces sary to lo cate an This loca tion (Fig. 8) was cho sen for ex cava - area be tween sec tions 4 and 6, which had al ready tion due to the pres ence of MP flint ar ti facts as re vealed Mous terian finds. Hence, nine meters well as ani mal bones embed ded amongst basalt were exca vated in area C that ex posed a layer cobbles and boulders on the Jordan River bank at bear ing MP ar tifacts and bones, lo cated mainly in water level. Many flint tools and bones were col- a small sec tion of squares I152, I153 and I154 at lected at this lo cal ity dur ing vis its to the site prior the western margins of the area (Fig. 18). Within a to exca va tion and it was assumed that this area layer of dark clay, lying on top of a layer of basalt would have the best po tential for explor ing the cob bles (see be low). The nu mer ous an i mal bones pres ence of Mid dle Palaeo lithic oc cu pa tion at the ex ca vated in cluded pri mar ily the bones of Bos site. Six square meters were opened to test the na - primigenius. The most signif i cant find in this ture of this ar chae o log i cal oc cur rence. Af ter a layer is a part of a Bos skull and two horn cores short ex cava tion it was clear that the area is com- exca vated in square I152 (Fig. 19). The skull was 144 G. Sharon et al.

Fig. 18. NMO Area C 2007 at the end of ex ca va tion. Ar row in di cates find point of Bos skull in square I152

found lying upside-down with a few flint arti facts blades and flakes includ ing a few typ ical Mous- scattered around it. It should be noted that a layer terian points. The lithic ar ti fact den sity seems to of rel a tively re cent river chan nel sed i ments com- be rel atively low, but the tools found are very well prised of mainly sand and pebbles was cov ering made and indic a tive of the Mousterian period. In the upper part of the skull and possi bly removed con trast to the lithic as semblage, the fau nal as - the other part of it. Never the less, the skull was semblage of these layers is rich and in ex cellent well-em bedded within the layer of dark clay hold- state of preser va tion. Apart from the skull of Bos ing only MP arti facts and bones. Upon refit ting of described above, ani mals found include cervids, the skull, the presence of the base of the skull in- wild boar and turtles. Prelim inary study has cluding part of the pari etal bone, the occip i tal shown that the bo tan ical re mains are well pre - condyle and the one processus cornus (horn core) served within the clay lay ers, to gether with is now observ able. The enormous size of the charcoal that is found in large quantities. bones in compar i son to present day cows is most nota ble (Fig. 19b). The few flint arti facts exca - Area D vated from this layer included Levallois flake and During the 2008 exca va tion season, a large points. They are un-weathered but show dark, area was cho sen for ex cava tion based on the pre- almost black patina. vi ous find ing of MP ar chae o log i cal re mains in As noted above, the Mous terian layers were sur round ing ex po sures and soundings ex ca va- ex posed in a very small area, to taling less than 5 tions includ ing Area C, Sections 07-6 and 07-7 square meters. The main finds are Levallois and the geolog i cal Trench Ic (Fig. 8). This new The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 145 area opened is named Area D (Figs 8b and 13). Af ter study ing the site stra tig ra phy, it became ev i- dent that in order to reach the archae o log i cal layer, a substan tial amount of earth needed to be re moved, par tic u larly to wards the east ern por tion of the site. A JCB dig ger was used to remove the top soil and upper levels and expose the layers for exca va tion. A total of ca 64 m2 was ex ca vated by the tractor, but only part of it (ca 28 m2) was exca - vated to ar chae o log i cal layer depth.

PRELIM I NARY RESULTS OF THE 2008 SEASON Fauna The study of the faunal remains from the 2008 season is ongo ing. Yet it is clear that the finds of this season have enlarged both the vari ety of an imal spe cies rep re sented at the site and the sample size for the ani mals previ ously found. The bones are frag ile and re quire care ful con ser va tion Fig. 19. a. Skull of Bos ven tral view, with horn cores treat ment for fu ture re search. Taxon rep re sen ta - and lithic ar ti facts dur ing ex ca va tion at Area B, square tion includes remains of mollusks, aves, chelonia I152; b. re fit ted Bos skull exca vated at Area C pre- and mammals. The mammals in clude Gazella sented against re cent, full-sized, skull of a cow gazella, Dama mesopotamica (Fig. 20), Bos primigenius, Equus sp and Sus scrofa. In addi tion, many bone fragments were identi fied to body size (BSGB, BSGC, BSGD). Pre lim i nary ob ser va tion in di cates the pres ence of cut marks on a few bones, as well as the pres ence of car ni vore gnaw- ing and scratches. This assem blage includes the base of a male aurochs’ skull, a complete sa crum of an aurochs and other teeth and post cranials.

Flora Wood The pres ence of large pieces of wood as well as numer ous seeds and fruits in the layer bearing MP ar chae o log i cal re mains was con firmed dur ing the 2008 season. A few branches of wood were ex ca vated. The larg est, measured to ca 30 cm in Fig. 20. Antler tip of Dama in square L159 length, was exposed in square K158 (Fig. 21). The study of the NMO wood pieces by Prof. E. Werker is ongo ing. The two largest branches and many pieces of bark. Finally, it seems that a were both identi fied as Oak, Quercus boissieri. few of the wooden re mains are scorched. This is a spe cies that lives to day at el e va tions above 500 meters above sea level and was not Seeds and fruits found in the wood as sem blage of the lower The site’s sedi ments have yielded numer ous Paleolithic site of GBY. Ad di tional iden ti fi ca - seeds and fruits that are under study. The spe cies tions include Fraxinus syriaca, Salix, Amygdalus iden ti fied to date in clude Ceratophyllum demer- 146 G. Sharon et al.

earthed in square K159 of Area D. The seeds were found at a depth of over 2 meters below present day sur face. They were ex posed at the con tact be - tween the dark clay of layer 4 and its under ly ing large basalt boul der of layer 5 (Fig. 15). It is as- sumed that these seeds did not resulted from hu- man ac tiv ity. The main agents can di date for their ac cu mu la tion are the har vester-ants (Messor semirufus), known to collect large amounts of Holy This tle seeds (Danin and Yom-Tov, 1990). The ques tion as to the age of these seeds ac cu mu - la tion still awaits an answer. The rich palaeobotanical assem blage of Fig. 21. Oak branch, ca 30 cm long in square K158 NMO provides an oppor tu nity to explore addi - tional chro no log i cal seg ment of the palaeo-veg e - sum; Chenopodium/Suaeda; Cladium mariscus; tation se quence of the Hula Val ley. The re sults of Cyperus sp. a; Cyperus sp. b; Lycopus europaeus; this palaeobotanical research joint with those of Ranunculus subgen. Batrachium; Scirpus cf. the Lower Palaeo lithic and Epi-palaeo lithic sites holoschoenus; Scirpus lacustris; and Silybum in the vicin ity of Gesher Benot Ya´aqov (Mela- marianum. med, 2003; Sharon et al., 2002) will enable better Some seed and fruit remains could not yet be un derstand ing of the nature and changes in the identify. They seem to belong to exotic species veg e ta tion and en vi ron ment at the Hula val ley un fa mil iar within the re cent Flora Palaestina re- during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. gion. At tempts to iden tify these spe cies are in the focus of our efforts. These remains are of great in- The lithic as sem blage ter est since they have a po ten tial to ex pose hab i- The lithic as semblage ex cavated from Layer tats, en vi ron ments and even cli mate dif fer ent 4 at Area D is small yet very sig nifi cant. The total from those prevail ing the present day Hula number of flint ar tifacts larger than 2 cm ex ca - Valley. vated during the entire 2008 season is only 125. The botan ical re mains were found wa ter - The lithic ar tifacts were found in the Layer 4 dark logged and most of them retained their origi nal clay, mostly in verti cal posi tion as if they were morphol ogy. The species identi fied to date are stuck in the mud. While this might suggest that found today in wet as well as dry habi tats (Table they are not fully in pri mary con text, they clearly 2). The most com mon remains are those of show no evi dence of any transpor ta tion in water Scirpus lacustri, an emergent plant of fresh or and are extremely fresh (Fig. 22). In addi tion, brackish shallow wa ter which is a frequent hab itat some of the flints show clear as so ci a tion with the in the Jordan River banks. Free floating plants, bones. such as the wa ter fern Sal vin ia cf. natas, are very It is in ter est ing to note that only very few of common in the NMO assem blage and proba bly the flint ar ti facts show ev idence of burning. The floated in open water or loose stands of emergent as semblage of small micro-ar tifacts, on the other wa ter plants. Sal vin ia cf. natas was con sid ered as hand, has higher numbers of burned pieces. an ex tinct spe cies in Is rael un til lately, when it be - Pre lim i nary ob ser va tions re gard ing the 2008 came nat u ral ized in the coastal plain of Is rael flint assem blage have yielded the follow ing: (Danin, 2004:20).Win ter-flooded soils species 1. The assem blage is obvi ously small and the are rep re sented at NMO by Heliotropium spica- density of lithic arti facts is very low in compar i - tum. The above combi na tion of plant species indi - son to most other Mousterian sites exca vated cate an envi ron ment of lake margins with mode- (Gilead, 1980; Goren-Inbar, 1990; Jelinek, 1981). rate slope and springs in the vicinity of the site. 2. Within this small assem blage, the per cent - Of special inter est are the numer ous seeds age of tools is very high, reaching ~31% of the (~1500) of Holy thistle (Silybum marianum) un- flake as sem blage. The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 147

Ta ble 2 The seeds and fruit re mains

Square and sample colume (cc) Plant name Or gan K158d k159c+d L159c N158d N175b 850 1340 300 300 400 Emer gent plants in shal low wa ter Alisma sp. seed ++ + ++ + +++ Butomus umbellatus seed + Cladium mariscus nutlet ++ ++ Cyperus sp. nutlet + + + ++ Lycopus europaeus fruit ++ + ++ ++ Polygonum cf. lapathifolium nutlet ++ Scirpus cf. holoschoenus nutlet + Scirpus lacustris nutlet +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ Typha sp. seed + Ver bena officinalis fruit + + ++ Float ing and sub merged plants in open wa ter Ceratophyllum demersum nutlet ++ ++ + + ++ Myriophyllum spicatum fruit + + Potamogeton cf. crispus nutlet + ++ + + Potamogeton cf. trichoides nutlet + ++ + + + Potamogeton sp. nutlet + ++ + + + Ranunculus subgen. Batrachium fruit +++ ++ +++ + +++ Sal vin ia cf. natans macro spor an gium + Plants in brooks and springs Chara sp. oo spores + + cf. Mentha sp. fruit + + cf. Nastur tium officinale seed + + Plants in flooded soils Heliotropium supinum fruit + Ranunculus cf. scandicinus fruit + + Her ba ceous veg e ta tion of dry hab i tats Adonis sp. fruit + Beta vulgaris fruit + Chenopodium sp. seed + + ++ + +++ cf. Ge ra nium seed + Silybum marianum fruit + +++ Thymelaea passerina nutlet + + Other Cruciferae seed +++ cf. Hypericum seed + ++ Labiatae fruit + Medicago sp. fruit + Rumex sp. nutlet Umbelliferae fruit + ++ + + ++ Frequency: + = 1–3, ++ = 4–10, +++ = >10 148 G. Sharon et al.

Fig. 22. Flint ar ti facts from Area D, 2008 ex ca va tion sea son at NMO The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 149

3. The primary morpho-types repre sented are plain why waste products as well as other tool points (9.3% of the total flake as sem blage; N=9) types such as burins or scrapers are either absent and retouched blades (Fig. 22). Knives, nat u rally or under-represented. or retouch backed, are also signif i cant (5.2%; It should be noted, of course, that these sug- N=5). gestions are based on the ex cava tion of only a 4. Many of the arti facts show edge damage. lim ited area and are pre lim inary. They might be 5. The as semblage is clearly lami nar in nature true only spe cif ically for Area D Layer 4 while and most of the points are elongated (Fig. 22). other local ities at the site may show a dif ferent na - 41% (N=25) of the blanks ex cavated from Layer ture of occu pa tion, as suggested by the assem - 4 in Area D were recorded as blanks with an addi - blage of tools collected from the piles of sedi - tional 11.5% of the blanks identi fied as elongated ments at in the vi cin ity of the NMO site (Goren- points. Inbar and Alperson-Afil, personal communica- 6. Although Levallois flakes are present, the tion). ma jor ity of the ar ti facts were prob a bly pro duced by means of the lami nar core method (Wojtczak, SUM MARY AND CON CLU SIONS (in press); Meignen, 1998, 2007, in press). The re sults of a geo-ar chae o log i cal sur vey 7. Seven cores were exca vated from Area D and two exca va tion sea sons at the out let of the during the 2008 season. Only one of them is over Mahanyeem Stream into the Jor dan River ex - 10 cm in maxi mal dimen sion, the others being posed a Middle Palaeolithic hori zon rich in fauna much smaller. Four of them are de fined as “core and bo tan ical re mains as well as a sig nif icant on flake” while the other three are amorphous in lithic as sem blage. Im por tant finds re sult ing from shape. None of the cores could be defined as survey work and surface collec tion include: a) a Levallois. small fragment of hu man skull col lected from a The lithic as sem blage ex ca vated dur ing the pile of sedi ment discarded on the bank of the Jor- 2008 sea son suggests that the lithic indus try of the dan River. b) a rich lithic as semblage col lected NMO site (at least the one rep re sented in Layer 4) from the same pile contain ing both MP and UP may be assigned to the Early Mousterian tradi tion tool types that can not, there fore, by it self es tab - of the Levant (Copeland, 1975; Garrod and Bate, lish a more pre cise chro no log i cal as sess ment for 1937; Meignen, in press; Shea, 2003). If this is in- the human skull. c) a skull and femur of a large deed the case, the NMO site is the only open-air lion (Pantera leo), found embed ded within dark site in north Israel that can be assigned to this clay on the banks of the Jordan River. early phase of the Mid dle Paleolithic. This sug - Two exca va tion sea sons at the site en abled ges tion is also chro no log i cally sig nif i cant as it the estab lish ment of a stratigraphic framework for places the site within the ear lier stages of the MP the site. The Mid dle Palaeo lithic ar chae o log i cal es timated at pres ent to be ca 200 Ka (Bar-Yosef, ho rizon (Layer 4) is em bedded within a clay layer 1998; Mercier et al., 2007; Shea, 2003). overly ing a layer of basalt cobbles and boulders Ad di tional sig nif i cance of the NMO lithic as - (Layer 5), which is the base of the stratigraphic semblage is found in its low number and density sequence at this local ity. The topog ra phy and geo- com bined with its low percent age of waste prod- log ical con text of Layer 5 are still un clear. What - ucts. Ar chae o log i cal ob ser va tions pre sented ever may be the ex plana tion of the topog raphy of above demon strate that the site rep re sents a short Layer 5, it can be as sumed, on taphonomic and term oc cu pa tion, sug gest ing that homi nids came strati graphic grounds, that the inhab it ants of to this local ity for hunting, butchery and meat NMO during their short oc cupa tion saw its cur- pro cess ing ac tiv ity. The pres ence of a very lim- rent ty pog raphy. In other words, it was proba bly a ited number of tool types, includ ing primary small hill of ba salt in the middle of the swampy points and blades that could have been used for mud that surrounded it. This may explain the at- meat slicing, may sug gest a task spe cific na ture tractive nature of this loca tion to the hominids, for the NMO oc cupa tion. A very specific tool kit who found within the swamp stable ground suit- that repre sents only what the NMO inhab it ants se- able either for an ambush or as a place to bring the lected to carry with them to the hunt, would ex- hunt for butchering and processing. 150 G. Sharon et al.

The clay of Layer 4 is rich in fauna re mains er va tion of bo tan i cal ma te rial is unique among dom inated by the bones of very large Bos primi- MP sites in the Levant, enabling this study. The ge nius in ex cel lent state of pres er va tion. Pre lim i - preser va tion of seeds, fruits and wood enable us nary study of the wood remains dem on strated the to learn about the plant food diet of MP humans. presence of well-preserved wood and bark frag- And finally, clear indi ca tion of the presence of ments identi fied as belong ing to a vari ety of spe- Up per Palaeo lithic tools in one of the site’s ex ca- cies. Some of the wood pieces show ev idence of vated as sem blages sug gests that the chro no log i cal fire. The study of fruit and seeds from the site is and cul tural margins of the site’s layers covers a on go ing, yet the large va ri ety of spe cies already wide range of archaeological periods. identi fied indicate a swamp environment. We look forward to the upcom ing exca va tion The lithic as semblage ex ca vated is small, yet seasons at NMO that will undoubt edly reveal new sig nif i cant. It is com prised pri mar ily of elon gated and excit ing data shed ding light on hu man ac tiv- blades with a high percent age of tools to waste. ity and its en viron men tal background at the Signif i cant tool types are points and retouched swamps that surrounded the Paleo Hula Lake in blades. The elonga tion of the assem blage may the Middle Pleistocene. suggest that the indus try should be assigned to the early stages of the Levantine Mous terian, yet the Ac knowl edg ments sample size must be en larged before any further The field and lab work were sup ported pri marily con clu sion can be pre sented. Nev er the less, the ty - by grants from the Leakey Founda tion and the Irene po logi cal com po si tion of the as sem blage and the Levi Sala CARE Ar chae o log i cal Foun da tion. The pro - low frequency of knapping waste products sug- ject is also supported by an on going grant awarded to Prof. N. Goren Inbar by the Is rael Sci ence Foun da tion gest a unique nature for the NMO lithic assem - Cen ter of Ex cel lence (Grant No. 300/06). Many thanks blage. The NMO site proba bly repre sents a to the NMO ex ca va tion staff and vol un teers. Much help short-term oc cu pa tion and task spe cific ac tiv ity. was provided by the East ern Gal i lee and Golan District The lithic as semblage can be in ter preted as rep re - of the Is rael An tiq uity Author ity and R. Molcho, en gi - sent ing the tool kit of the Middle Paleolithic neer of the Kinneret Drain age Au thor ity. We would hominids used during a specific task that probably like to thank them and the mem bers of Kib butz Gadot involved hunting, meat processing or both. who pro vided lo gis tic sup port for the ex ca va tion. Figs The NMO site provides a unique op portu nity 5, 6 and 7 were pho to graphed by Gabbi Laron. Arti - to explore many areas of human ity’s cultural and facts in Fig. 4 were drawn by Leonid Zeiger. Re fit ting of the lion and Bos skulls was done by G. Bainer. We bi o log i cal or i gins, de vel op ment and vari a tion. wish to thank Idan Shaked, Omry Barzilai, Hamoudi The first area is the behav ioral pattern and subsis - Khalaily, Ofer Marder, Shmuel Belitzky, Bo Madsen, tence strat e gies of Mid dle Palaeo lithic hominids C. Feibel and the many oth ers who helped dur ing the in the North ern Dead Sea Rift. The site is open air GBY Geo-Ar chae o log i cal sur vey in 2002. Nira Alper- and suggested to be of short-term and task-spe - son-Afil and Amy Klein read an early ver sion of this cific na ture. This na ture of oc cu pa tion will al low work and con trib uted many help ful re marks. us to study the be havior pattern of the MP hunt - ers, their task-re lated lithic tool-kit and their sub - sis tence as ev idenced by the an imal bones they REF ER ENCES left behind. The data retrieved from long se- BAR-YOSEF O. 1998. The chro nol ogy of the Mid dle quence Levantine Mous terian cave sites nor mally Paleolithic of the Levant. In: T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, does not permit such reso lution. The Mousterian O. Bar-Yosef (eds) Neandertals and Modern Hu- mans in West ern Asia. Ple num, New York, 39–56. culture is, at present, almost unknown from the COPELAND L. 1975. The Mid dle and Up per Paleo- Northern Dead Sea Rift (with the excep tion of the lithic of Leb a non and Syria in the light of Re cent Nahal sites) and, in par ticu lar, the Re search. In: F. Wendorf, A. E. Marks (eds.) Prob - presence of early Mousterian has rarely been lems in Pre history: North Af rica and the Lev ant. documented. SMU Press, Dal las, 317–350. The second area of explo ra tion is the envi ron - DANIN A. 2004. Distri bu tion Atlas of Plants in the mental background for the human activ ity at the Flora Palaestina Area. The Israel Academy of Sci- site and the hu man in ter re la tion with it. The pres - ences and Human i ties, Jeru sa lem. The first two ex ca va tion sea sons at NMO 151

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