Renewed Excavations at Beisamoun: Investigating the 7th Millennium cal. BC of the Southern Levant Fanny Bocquentin, Hamoudi Khalaily, Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer, Francesco Berna, Rebecca Biton, Doron Boness, Laure Dubreuil, Aline Emery-Barbier, Harris Greenberg, Yuval Goren, et al. To cite this version: Fanny Bocquentin, Hamoudi Khalaily, Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer, Francesco Berna, Rebecca Biton, et al.. Renewed Excavations at Beisamoun: Investigating the 7th Millennium cal. BC of the Southern Levant. Journal of the Israel prehistoric society, Israel Prehistoric Society, 2014, 44, pp.5-100. hal- 02014783 HAL Id: hal-02014783 https://hal.parisnanterre.fr//hal-02014783 Submitted on 11 Feb 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Renewed Excavations at Beisamoun: Investigating the 7th Millennium cal. BC of the Southern Levant Fanny Bocquentin1, Hamoudi Khalaily2, Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer3, Francesco Berna4, Rebecca Biton5, Doron Boness6, Laure Dubreuil7, Aline Emery-Barbier8, Harris Greenberg9, Yuval Goren10, Liora K. Horwitz5, Gaëlle Le Dosseur8, Omri Lernau5, Henk K. Mienis5,3, Boris Valentin11 and Nicolas Samuelian1, 12 1 Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, USR 3132 CNRS (UMIFRE 7 CNRS-MAEE), POB 547, Jerusalem, Israel. [email protected] 2 Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, Jerusalem, Israel. [email protected] 3 The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. [email protected] 4 Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. [email protected] 5 National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] 6 Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. [email protected] 7 Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. [email protected] 8 CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn, Equipe Ethnologie Préhistorique, Maison de l’Archéologie et de l’Ethnologie René Ginouvès. Nanterre Cedex, France. [email protected]; [email protected] 9 Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, USA. [email protected] 10 Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. [email protected] 11 Université Paris 1-UMR 7041, ArScAn, Equipe Ethnologie Préhistorique, Maison de l’Archéologie et de l’Ethnologie René Ginouvès, Nanterre Cedex, France. [email protected] 12 Institut National de la Recherche Archéologique Préventive, Paris, France. [email protected] ABSTRACT The site of Beisamoun is located on the western side of the marshes of the former Hula Lake in the upper Jordan Valley, in the northern part of the Southern Levant. It is known as a major Middle and Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement from excavations and surveys undertaken by A. Assaf, J. Perrot and M. Lechevallier and colleagues up to the 1970’s. However, the phases currently being excavated (under the direction of F. Bocquentin and H. Khalaily) represent a later settlement. Ongoing field work has uncovered about 300 m² with five occupation levels. Radiocarbon dates as well as the flint assemblage, the architectural remains, the funerary practices and the absence of pottery indicate a cultural attribution to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C, dated to the first half of the 7th millennium BC. We present here the results of six excavation seasons (2007–2012), including the geoarchaeological background of the site and its surroundings, the stratigraphy, sediment micromorphology, palynology and architecture, as well as preliminary results from analyses of some of the finds including human burials, lithics, groundstone artifacts, personal ornaments, bone tools and faunal remains. KEYWORDS: Beisamoun, Hula Basin, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, Pre-Pottery Neolithic C, Bladelet production, Hunting, Micromorphology, Funerary practices, Environment, Tool production. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND TO THE CURRENT STUDY Beisamoun is a large Neolithic site located in the Hula The Beisamoun locality has yielded two major cultural Valley in northern Israel. It lies on the western side of the horizons: on the one hand, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) former marshes of the now drained Hula Lake, near the component located in the northern part and, on the other, perennial spring of Eynan (or Aïn Mallaha), with Iron Early and Late Pottery Neolithic components (EPN/PN) Age Tell Mallaha to its south (Figs. 1, 2). The site was in the southwestern part (Fig. 2). The two components are discovered in 1955 by A. Assaf when fishponds were separated by approximately 800 m of terrain that is, as built. As these artificial ponds were regularly drained for yet, unexplored. As far as we know today, the PPN and cleaning, A. Assaf and a team directed by M. Lechevallier EPN/PN cultural horizons are not directly superimposed, (CNRS), who was working at the same time at the leading to the conclusion that either the settlement and Natufian site of Eynan with J. Perrot (Fig. 3), surveyed its inhabitants moved towards the southwest over time, the area and dug several soundings in the fishponds in or that they are independent settlements, possibly even 1965, 1969 and 1971 (Fig. 2). In 1972, a large plaster floor different communities. In order to clarify the successive dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period was occupation phases in this area, we will refer to the EPN/ discovered following which the team undertook a one PN components as “Beisamoun-West” (see also Khalaily month rescue excavation (Lechevallier 1978). Damage et al. 2009) and the PPN occupation as “Beisamoun”. to the site continued due to exploitation of the fishponds Based on surface prospection and soundings to the and agricultural development in the area until 1999, north of Tell Mallaha, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site the year when Beisamoun was proclaimed a protected of Beisamoun covers more than 10 ha (Lechevallier archaeological site by the Israel Antiquities Authority. 1978). About 70 long segments of walls were mapped In 2007 a large test excavation was undertaken under the by Lechevallier and colleagues at the bottom of several auspices of the IAA along Road 90 at the southwestern fishponds—Ponds #1, #2, #10 and #12 (Fig. 4)—revealing margin of the site (Khalaily et al. 2009) followed by a a low density of rectangular houses grouped in clusters, salvage excavation undertaken by D. Rosenberg and I. all oriented according to the cardinal points. The remains Groman-Yaroslavski (Rosenberg 2010a). were usually found at the edge of the fishponds. There In 2007, our team started a long-term excavation are probably two reasons for this: (a) the site was less project in the northern part of Beisamoun, adjacent to the severely damaged in these areas and, (b) these areas were area explored by Lechevallier’s team (Bocquentin et al. more accessible for survey while the centers of the ponds 2007). We uncovered occupational remains spanning the were still wet. Soundings performed at the base of some transition between the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) of the mapped walls were unsuccessful and the team and the Early Pottery Neolithic (EPN), a period that is concluded that only the foundations of the houses were poorly known and has alternately been named the Pre- preserved, the floors having been destroyed. House 150, Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) (Rollefson and Köhler- exposed in 1972, is an exception. With its large extent, Rollefson 1993), or the Final PPNB (Goring-Morris and well preserved inner structures, the abundance and quality Belfer-Cohen 1998). This is not a simple question of of the tools collected and the discovery of two plastered terminology but a major issue of how to define a chrono- skulls, it has contributed to the reputation of the site. The cultural complex. Some authors consider the material site was considered to have been occupied for a short culture of this phase as directly inherited from the PPNB time period, about one or two centuries, at the end of the period (e.g. Kuijt and Goring-Morris 2002); others, to the PPNB (Lechevallier 1978:280), a period which is today contrary, see it as a major cultural shift heralding the PN called the LPPNB and dates to the second half of the 8th (Clare 2010; Rollefson and Köhler-Rollefson 1993). This millennium Cal BC (in the 1970’s the end of the PPNB issue will not be discussed in the current paper since it is was placed at the end of the 7th millennium Cal BC). dedicated to the presentation of our preliminary results. At Thanks to having full access to the archives and finds of this stage of our research we have chosen to use the more Lechevallier’s excavations, our team revised the material conventional and widespread term of PPNC. remains in the light of recent studies of the PPNB. We separated the surface collections from the remains was not found in situ except perhaps in exploratory found in situ (this is to say within or under House 150) trenches that we have dug (see below), but samples are too (Bocquentin et al. 2011). We have shown that House 150 small to be decisive. As such, a clear picture of this period was certainly occupied during the MPPNB (first half of the is still missing from our excavations in order to verify that 8th millennium) while the rest of the assemblage, found on the site was occupied continuously.