Culture, Chronology and the Chalcolithic: Transitions in the Late Prehistory of the Southern Levant Tuesday, 4th April. 15:00h - 20:30h Coordinators: Yorke Rowan and Jaimie Lovell Mini-session I 15:00 Late Neo - Middle Chalcolithic papers. Introduction Chair: Isaac Gilead (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) 15:05 - 15:15 The Middle Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant Yosef Garfinkel (Institute of Archaeology. Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Abstract The transition from the Early Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah/PNB Jericho) to the Late Chalcolithic (Ghassul/Beersheva) is not clear and various ideas have been suggested over the years for this process. However, in the last years, following excavations at various new sites, it became clear that an addition stage existed between the two – the Middle Chalcolithic (Beth Shean XVIII/Qatifian). The lecture will discuss the lower levels at the site of Tuleilat el-Ghassul in light of new data (published or unpublished) from various sites in the Jordan valley: Tel 'Ali, Tel Beth Shean and Tel Tsaf. 15:15 - 15:25 Ghrubba: Ware or Culture? Zeidan Kafafi (Yarmouk University) Abstract In 1953 James Mellaart excavated the site of Ghrubba, Jordan, located in the southern part of the Jordan Valley 1.5 km from Shuneh South. The excavated pottery and flint assemblages were recovered from a pit in strata located under Chalcolithic material. Mellaart assigned these materials to the Pottery Neolithic period. At the time, Ghrubba was the only Neolithic site to produce such a pottery type, and thus scholars thought that this type of pottery was limited only to this site. However, recent archaeological excavations conducted at the sites of Abu Hamid, Abu Thawwab and Ain Ghazal produced similar pottery sherds. This paper seeks to clarify whether the Ghrubba pottery assemblage represents a pottery ware tradition or a culture. In addition, an attempt will be made to place this assemblage in chronological sequence with other Pottery Neolithic assemblages. 15:25 - 15:35 Fifth Millennium Culture History: Ghassulian and other Chalcolithic Entities in the Southern Levant Isaac Gilead (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Abstract It is currently common to date the Chalcolithic period to the time span of 4,500-3,500 B.C. cal., and to subdivide the period into temporal units (i.e., Early, Late). In the first part of the paper it is argued that the boundaries of the period call for revision and that the temporal subdivision is problematic. Recent finds and radiometric dates suggest that the period started and terminated earlier than hitherto thought. The temporal division of the period is loosely defined and contributes very little, if at all, to a better understanding of cultural and organizational aspects of the Chalcolithic societies. The prospects of a Chalcolithic culture history are discussed in the second part of the paper. It is argued that understanding socio-economic dynamics is either biased or impossible without recognition, in time and space, of cultural entities. The Ghassulian and its sub-cultures, local and temporal variants, are essential in this context, along additional entities such as the Besorian and the Golan Chalcolithic to name three examples. Recently published Chalcolithic sites located in the hilly part of the town of Beer Sheva, the pottery and the radiometric dates of Gilat, and pottery, stratigraphy and new radiometric dates of Teleilat Ghassul suggest that different entities can be determined, that cultures and sub-cultures can be defined spatially and temporally, and that it is possible to start constructing a Chalcolithic culture history. 15:35 - 15:45 Wadi Rabah and Related Assemblages in the Southern Levant: Interpreting the Radiocarbon Evidence Edward Banning (University of Toronto) Abstract In the half-century since Kaplan identified the “Wadi Rabah culture,” our understanding of this entity, its place in the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic, or its relationship to other entities, such as Halaf, has improved but little. In part, this failure is due to a dearth of radiocarbon evidence and misapplication of such evidence as we have. In part, it is due to lack of agreement over what Wadi Rabah is, and how assemblages from sites outside its core area are related to it. This paper will present analyses of dating evidence for sites with “Late Neolithic” or “Early Chalcolithic” assemblages in the southern Levant and point out directions that new research must take if we are to solve this dilemma. 15:45 - 16:10 Discussion 5 minute intro/round up by chair, followed by directed discussion from the floor and conclusion from the chair 16:10 - 16:15 Short break Mini-session II 16:15 New work/dates at various sites/regions. Introduction Chair: Graham Philip (Durham University) 16:20 - 16:30 Results of the Joint Palestinian-Norwegian Excavation at Tell el-Mafjar, Jericho 2002-03 Hamdan Taha, Nils Anfinset, Yehad Yassine, Muhammed Mukbil (University of Bergen) Abstract This presentation will focus on the outline of the Joint Palestinian-Norwegian excavation at Tell el-Mafjar, including major goals and research history of the site. The main part of the presentation will focus on the two seasons of excavation and its results of the archaeological material in general, C-14 dates and analysis of botanical remains. Further the site will be placed in a local context as well as to draw some lines to other contemporary sites in the region in general. The site of Tell el-Mafjar was discovered by James Mellaart in the early 1950’s and has after this been subject to a number of brief surface surveys. In 2002 and 2003 the first two seasons of excavation of the site was launched, which have revealed substantial material on the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic in the Jericho Oasis. 16:30 - 16:40 Desert Chronologies and Periodization Systems Steven A. Rosen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Abstract Archaeological analyses of the cultural and social systems of the desert regions of the Levant suggest that chronological frameworks for proto-historic periods in the Negev, Sinai, and southern Jordan need to be constructed independently of those of the Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean zones. The developmental trajectories of the desert zone societies, in these periods based primarily on variations of pastoralism and hunting-gathering, contrast significantly with those of their agricultural and village based northern neighbors. As a result, periodization schemes based on events, trends, and technological changes in the northern zone are both basically irrelevant to the desert, and in some cases actually out of phase with local desert trends and changes. Indeed, in some cases the adoption of the non-local sequence, such as the sharp distinction between the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages, masks clear desert cultural continuities. Furthermore, differences in material culture, especially in the relativity scarcity of ceramics in the desert societies, renders periodization schemes based on ceramic typologies (or for that matter, technologies) unusable. A hierarchical framework is presented based on local materials, including architectural changes, trade systems, and most especially chipped stone tools. This is calibrated by reference to radiocarbon dates and fossil indices taken from external systems. 16:40 - 16:50 Newly Discovered Burial Practices of the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age I in Southern Canaan - Evidence of Cultural and Ethnic Continuity? Amir Golani, Yossi Nagar and Amir Gorzalczany (Israel Antiquities Authority) Abstract Recent studies of the very early Early Bronze Age I material culture in Southern Canaan during the 4th millennium BCE have indicated continuity with the preceding Chalcolithic culture of the Northern Negev that thrived in the late 5th millennium BCE. The early EB I occupation at Ashqelon is proposed as representing the material culture of Chalcolithic cultural groups that relocated to the southern coastal plain after the collapse of the Chalcolithic geo-cultural sphere of the Northern Negev. New evidence may now serve to bolster the suggestion of cultural continuity and possibly imply an ethnic continuity as well in Southern Canaan. In this region, Chalcolithic burials are usually found as intra-site infant burials while adults and sub-adults were generally accorded secondary burials in clay or stone ossuaries in caves or burial structures outside sites. Primary burials are usually not the norm, and may represent a preparatory stage to the more common secondary burial stage. During the EB I in Southern Canaan, infants and adults are usually found in primary and possibly also secondary burials in caves or cemeteries with burial goods, all outside the habitational sites. Excavations at the Early Bronze Age site of Ashqelon Barnea have revealed numerous intra-site infant burials, uncommon for this period, in jars and within small mudbrick cists. In addition, a hitherto unknown form of secondary burial of adults in small stone cists attached to one another in “ladder” form was revealed outside and adjacent to the site. Similar burials have also been found at Chalcolithic burial ground near Palmahim, also located in the southern Canaanean coastal plain. The intra-site infant burials associated to the EB occupation at Ashqelon and common at Chalcolithic sites as well, in addition to secondary adult cist burials at both Ashqelon and Palmahim, suggest a cultural continuity between these two periods that may be attributed to the same cultural and ethnic group that resided in Southern Canaan during the Chalcolithic and into the EB I. These findings are in contrast to those from other, more northern portions of the Southern Levant where a more distinct break in burial customs is recognized in the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age. 16:50 - 17:00 Canaanean blades in the Chalcolithic of the soutern Levant? Ianir Milevski, Peter Fabian and Ofer Marder (Israel Antiquities Authority) Abstract In the last years some scholars have suggested that flint Canaanean blades, a hallmark of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant, have begun to be produced already in the end of the Chalcolithic period. This short presentation will hint at the problems in such suggestions through an analysis of the evidence we possess from recent excavations. 17:00 - 17:30 Coffee break 17:30 - 17:50 Discussion 5 minute intro/round up by chair, followed by directed discussion from the floor and conclusion from the chair Mini-session III 17:50 Social archaeology and chronologies? Introducion Chair: Yorke Rowan (University of Notre Dame, USA) 17:55 - 18:05 The transition from social complexity to urbanisation was not smooth but bumpy Susanne Kerner (Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen) Abstract While it has become increasingly clear that the social and political organisation of the Late Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant was rather complex and showed in certain areas (such as the Jordan Valley and even more so in the Negev) clear signs of ranked societies, we are still not too sure about the exact nature of this complexity. Questions of wealth-prestige financing compared to staple goods financing are only mentioned here to show one field in which discussions are still necessary. Recent research has shown that the following period of urbanisation is not the logical next step in an evolution of growing complexity, but happens at least in parts of the southern Levant after an “un-evolutionary” detour, which involves a very different level of socio-political as well as economical organisation. In the moment we are still in the stage of asking questions about this transition and not very close to giving certain answers. The transition however can be shown in the change of material culture as e.g. in the pottery material from Hujeirat al-Ghuzlan (Aqaba, Jordan). 18:05 - 18:15 Ceramic practices as markers of cultural continuity and discontinuity: Abu Hamid ceramics as a case study Valentine Roux, Marie-Agnès Courty and Geneviève Dollfus (Maison de l’Archéologie et de l’Ethnologie) Abstract Abu Hamid presents an occupation spanning from the 6th millennium to mid of the 4th millennium BC. A succession of different cultural phases has been established from the stratigraphical sequence. In this paper, our focus concerns the ceramic practices during the two last phases -4200-3800 BC, and 3800-3500 BC-, here characterized in terms of techniques, methods, tools and skills. Because ceramic practices are “a way of doing”, they reflect the cultural traditions in use by the producers. The multiple provenance of the ceramic containers specific to Abu Hamid also helps to consider the ceramic practices at the scale of the South Levant. Results tend to show an homogeneity of practices at the scale of the South Levant for the two phases even though there are regional differences. Between the two last phases, continuity of ceramic practices is visible for utilitarian ceramics. Discontinuity is observed for wheel shaped bowls only. The latter are supposed to have a ceremonial value. Hypotheses follow concerning ceramic producers and consumers, i.e. respectively social and cultural groups. They raise the question of the meaning of the discontinuities characterizing the EBI ceramic practices compared to the previous ones. 18:15 - 18:25 Developmental Trends in Chalcolithic Copper Metallurgy: A Radiometric Perspective Aaron N. Shugar and Christopher J. Gohm (Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education. SCMRE) Abstract With a surge of scholarly interest in Chalcolithic copper metallurgy in the Southern Levant, many studies have been put forth concerning the technological characteristics, art-historical value and socio-cultural implications of the metal artifacts attributed to this period. Important early studies by Key, Shalev, Northover and others have demonstrated that two classes of artifacts were produced by the ancient smiths, each with unique compositional properties. These include complex casts of alloyed copper (As, Sb, and Ni) and simple tools of pure copper. Recent analyses by Tadmor, Namdar, Segal and Kamenski have suggested that this dichotomy may be more complex than previously assumed, as complex ‘prestige’ goods from Nahal Mishmar, Givat Ha-oranim, Peqi’in and Ketef Jericho have exhibited little or no evidence of alloying. The possibility that these varying compositional results may be related to chronological developments in the copper industry has not yet been considered. This study aims to elucidate this problem by correlating extant radiometric datasets from sites across the southern Levant with associated copper artifacts and/or metallurgical remains. Through an intensive investigation and reevaluation of the contexts from which copper remains have been recovered and radiocarbon samples taken, coupled with an integration of the radiometric data and the results of archaeometallurgical sampling, patterns relating to developmental trends in the industry can be observed. While it is true that these radiocarbon dates cannot be linked with certainty to the production of a given artifact, the assumption of a close correlation between production and use enables the assemblages from these sites to be arranged in relative chronological terms. This is especially plausible given the fact that most sites were not occupied for the entire millennium of the period, but instead usually only for several centuries. The implementation of an arbitrary ranking scheme based on the distribution and frequency of attested radiocarbon years from the relevant samples at each site further clarifies these relationships (i.e. sub-periods A through F; 45th through 35th centuries cal BCE). This integration of radiometric data and archaeometallurgical analyses indicate that the metallurgists of the period produced complex artifacts with varying compositions over time. The results suggest possible technological explanations for the recognized changes in chemical compositions of the metal artifacts so far uncovered. While still preliminary, and based on the assumed rough contemporaneity of the radiocarbon samples and artifactual production, these results provide the first hints about the chronological development of Chalcolithic metallurgical techniques. 18:25 - 18:50 Discussion 5 minute intro/round up by chair, followed by directed discussion from the floor and conclusion from the chair 18:50 - 18:55 Short break Mini-session IV 18:55 TChalco - EBA transition. Introduction Chair: Jaimie Lovell (Council for British Research in the Levant, Jordan) 19:00 - 19:10 Alpha and Omega of the Ghassulian: C14 and the Beginning and the End of the Chalcolithic Period at Teleilat Ghassul Stephen J. Bourke (University of Sydney) Abstract Recent field research at Teleilat Ghassul has clarified both the timing and the nature of the beginning of Chalcolithic period occupation and its end at Teleilat Ghassul. We now have nearly 30 new short-life C14 dates from the site. Three key issues will be addressed. One will focus on determining the timing of the transition from the semi-subterranean roundhouse 'Neolithic' strata (Hennessy Phases H-I) to the first substantial rectilinear mudbrick and stone architectural phases of the Early Chalcolithic (Hennessy Phases G-F). The second concerns the timing of the end of occupation across the site, with terminal horizons in Areas E, G, H, N and Q now all reliably dated. A third issue, to relate the 10-phase sequence outlined by Hennessy to the earlier 4-5 phase sequence proposed by PBI excavators, will be explored. In this presentation, the new C14 data from Ghassul will be discussed, these three specific concerns addressed, and more general relative and absolute chronological issues discussed. 19:10 - 19:20 The Transition from Chalcolithic to EB I in the Southern Levant: A ‘Lost Horizon’ Slowly Revealed Eliot Braun (Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem) Abstract Evidence for the transitional period between Final Chalcolithic and the onset and very earliest stages of EB I in the archaeological record of the southern Levant has, until relatively recent developments, eluded discernment of most researchers. The reasons are multiple, but primarily involve perception of what constitutes a ‘transition’ between two material culture configurations identified by archaeologists. Long perceived as well-defined entities distinct from each other, the Chalcolithic and EB I chrono-cultural entities actually represent a lengthy chronological range of continuous human occupation, activity and development. Since the process of change was continuous and cumulative, only when it reached a ‘critical mass’ or ‘degree of incontestable visibility’ did researchers feel obligated to define a phase subsequent to Chalcolithic by another designation. Perception of this transitional phase was also limited by an exceptionally and regionally imbalanced knowledge of the archaeological record. In addition, imperfectly understood chrono-cultural sequences for both the Chalcolithic and EB I periods were substantial deficiencies that further obscured researchers’ perception. Thus, the link between the latest Chalcolithic and Early Bronze I cultural traditions remained either unrecognized or only dimly perceived. Recent discoveries combined with increasing work on details of sequencing have greatly ameliorated many of these deficiencies and allow for better comprehension of the archaeological record. In particular, discoveries along the Mediterranean Littoral of Israel, at sites both of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze I periods, have yielded assemblages of ceramics, architectural remains, and to a more limited extent, 14C dates that allow for greatly improved perception of a ‘lost horizon’ in the archaeological record of the southern Levant. This presentation briefly reviews this new information and offers some challenging proposals for further study. 19:20 - 19:30 The End of the Chalcolithic (ca. 4500-3600 BC) in the Northern Negev Desert, Israel Margie Burton (University of California, San Diego) Abstract The northern Negev desert was a major focus of settlement expansion and technological development during the Chalcolithic period. However, the large villages that were established and flourished during the late 5th into the first centuries of the 4th millennium were abandoned by ca. 3700 BC and never reoccupied. This paper examines the cultural and chronological trajectory of Chalcolithic northern Negev settlement and abandonment as evidenced by ceramic typology and technology in concert with new 14C dates. Four habitation sites (Abu Hof Village, Shiqmim, Nahal Tillah/Halif Terrace, and Wadi Fidan 4) that temporally span the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze IA horizon in the northern Negev and a related resource zone, the Faynan copper district in southern Jordan, are used as case studies. Cluster analysis of ceramic data from these sites suggests vectors of population movement and interaction at the close of the Chalcolithic. These provide important clues to the social factors that contributed to the demise of the vibrant northern Negev Chalcolithic communities and helped to transform the cultural landscape. 19:30 - 19:40 Subsistence, resource procurement and manufacture in the southern Levant c. 5000-3000 BC: Tell esh-Shuna its regional context Graham Philip (Durham University) Abstract The site of Tell esh-Shuna has produced a well-dated sequence of occupation which covers the beginning of the 5th millennium cal. BC (early Chalcolithic) and much of the middle (early EB I) and late (late EB I) 4th millennium cal. bc. This paper: Compares the material evidence for the nature of the subsistence economy, craft production and resource procurement at these three distinct stages of the sequence Compares the evidence from Shuna with that from other broadly contemporary sites in the region Reviews that evidence in the context of what are generally perceived as the key changes in social and economic structures during the period 5000-3000 BC 19:40 - 20:00 Discussion 5 minute intro/round up by chair, followed by directed discussion from the floor and conclusion from the chair 20:00 Closing remarks from the Workshop Chairs Yorke Rowan (University of Notre Dame, USA) and Jaimie Lovell (Council for British Research in the Levant, Jordan)