Mollusc taxa and shell preservation of the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat in Israel Ingþór Björgvinsson Jarðvísindadeild Háskóli Íslands 2017 Ingþór Björgvinsson 10 eininga ritgerð sem er hluti af Baccalaureus Scientiarum gráðu í jarðfræði Leiðbeinandi Steffen Mischke Jarðvísindadeild Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóli Íslands Reykjavík, vor 2017 i Mollusc taxa and shell preservation of the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat in Israel. 10 eininga ritgerð sem er hluti af Baccalaureus Scientiarum gráðu í Jarðfræði Höfundarréttur © 2017 Ingþór Björgvinsson Öll réttindi áskilin Jarðvísindadeild Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóli Íslands Sturlugata 7 101 Reykjavík Sími: 525 4000 Skráningarupplýsingar: Ingþór Björgvinsson, 2017, Mollusc taxa and shell preservation of the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat in Israel, BS ritgerð, Jarðvísindadeild, Háskóli Íslands, 29 bls. Reykjavík, maí 2017 ii Útdráttur Í norðurhluta Ísrael hefur fornleifagröftur staðið yfir sumurin 2014, 2015 og 2016 á svæði sem nefnist Jordan River Dureijat á austurbakka árinnar Jordan. Áin rennur í gegnum dalinn Hula Valley og hafa setlög og mannvistaleyfar frá svæðinu verið rannsökuð. Middle Paleolithic, Acheulian og Late Epipaleolithic tímabilin eru vel þekkt á svæðinu en minna er vitað um Early og Middle Epipaleolithic tímabilin á svæðinu. Í greftrinum í september 2016 var sýnum fyrir þessa rannsókn safnað. Tuttugu skeljasýni voru tekin úr þremur setlögum á svæðinu, skeljarnar taldar og ástand þeirra metið. Í heildina fundust átta skeljategundir og voru þær greindar í eftirfarandi ættir; Melanopsis, Theodoxus, Unio, Heleobia, Bithynia, Valvata, Pisidium og Corbicula. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var að ákvarða umhverfislega eiginleika svæðisins á þeim tíma er setið í setlögunum settist. Skeljatölurnar, tegundirnar sem fundust og ástand skeljanna benda til þess að þegar setlögin þrjú mynduðust hafi skeljarnar skolast saman við ölduhreyfingar í nálægð við strönd og síðar grafist hlutfallslega hratt af nýju seti. Ályktun var dregin út frá niðurstöðum þessarar rannsóknar að Jordan River Dureijat sé forn strönd Hula Vatnsins sem stóð í Hula Dalnum á Early og Middle Epipaleolithic tímabilunum. Abstract An archaeological excavation took place in northern Israel on the Eastern bank of the Jordan River, which flows through the Hula Valley, in September 2016 at the Jordan River Dureijat excavation site, continuing previous excavations at the site from 2014 and 2015. While the Middle Paleolithic, Late Epipaleolithic and Acheulian periods are well documented in the Hula Valley, the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic periods are less understood. Twenty mollusc shell- rich samples were taken from three sediment layers at the site and the shells were counted and their preservation state estimated. A total of eight mollusc shell taxa were found and identified. The taxa that were found were identified as; Melanopsis, Theodoxus, Unio, Heleobia, Bithynia, Valvata, Pisidium and Corbicula. The shell count data, the taxa found and the preservation state of the shells indicate that the shells from the three sediment layers examined were washed together by wave movement in a near shore environment and buried relatively quickly by new sediment. The results from this thesis lead to the conclusion that the area of the Jordan River Dureijat is an ancient shore of the Hula Lake which occupied the Hula Valley during the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic periods. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. v 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Context and objectives of study .................................................................................... 1 1.2 Previous studies ............................................................................................................ 1 2 Study area ..................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Topography and geology .............................................................................................. 2 2.2 Climate and vegetation ................................................................................................. 3 2.3 The excavation site ....................................................................................................... 4 3 Materials and methods ................................................................................................ 5 3.1 Fieldwork and sample collection at the excavation site ................................................ 5 3.2 Laboratory analysis ....................................................................................................... 7 3.2.1 Weighing of samples ....................................................................................... 7 3.2.2 Wet sieving of sediments ................................................................................. 7 3.2.3 Picking of mollusc shells ................................................................................. 7 3.2.4 Assessment of mollusc shell preservation ....................................................... 7 3.3 Data presentation in tables and calculation of total shell numbers ............................. 11 3.4 Preparation of figures .................................................................................................. 11 4 Results ......................................................................................................................... 12 4.1 Recorded taxa and abundance of shells ...................................................................... 12 4.2 Assessment of shell preservation state ........................................................................ 13 4.3 Shell count and preservation state in samples from layer 3B ..................................... 14 4.4 Shell count and preservation state in samples from layer 3C .................................... 15 4.5 Shell count and preservation state in samples from layer 4 ....................................... 17 5 Discussions .................................................................................................................. 18 6 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 21 References ............................................................................................................................... 22 iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my mentor Steffen Mischke and his Ph.D. student Elizabeth Bunin for helping me with the whole process of this study, from the time we spent together collecting the samples in Israel to the day the thesis was completed. I would also like to thank The University of Iceland for giving me and one other B.Sc. student a grant funding the whole trip to Israel. At last I would like to thank Gonen Sharon, the head of the archaeological excavation at the Jordan River Dureijat, for making all of this possible. v 1 Introduction 1.1 Context and objectives of the study Prehistoric sites in the northern part of Israel are well preserved and excavations have taken place in the area regularly over the last decades. That includes the Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY) and Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic sites located on the eastern bank of the Jordan River in the Hula Valley. The two periods, Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic are well documented in the area as well as the Late Epipaleolithic period. The results from the studies from both GBY and NMO led to the conclusion that the sites were located near the shore of an ancient shallow freshwater lake, but the NMO study shows evidence for saline springs near the site of NMO. However, knowledge of the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic periods is missing and the sediment setting in the JRD is an enigma. Therefore, the Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), which is located South from NMO and North from GBY (figure 1), was excavated in hope of learning more about the Early and Middle Epipaleolithic periods in the area (Marder et al., 2015). The current study reports the results of a research on mollusc shells in sediments from the JRD. The aim of this research is to shed light on the characteristic features of the area at the end of, and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum, whether it was a margin of a lake, a river bank or a wetland setting. To do that the well documented molluscs of the present Hula Valley can be used as a tool to indicate the ecological conditions of the area where they are found, by examination of the quantity and preservation state of the shells. 1.2 Previous studies The JRD site was discovered by luck in 1999 during a drainage operation in the area (Sharon et al., 2002) and in 2002 the damage from the drainage operation was to be estimated. An area of one square meter was excavated and interesting material was found, such as human remains and tools used by men. These findings were an inspiration for a test excavation in the JRD in 2014, and the results of that excavation indicated that the area needed to be excavated further. In 2015 the first detailed and systematic excavation took place at the site (Marder et al., 2015; Sharon, 2016). In the 2015 excavation