Chalcolithic Period in the Near East
Topics 8-10
Chalcolithic in the Levant: Culture-historical Overview
Chalcolithic in the Levant: Growth of Metallurgy
Chalcolithic in the Levant: Cult, Sanctuaries, and Hoards
Geography
• Much more geographic and
ecological differentiation than
in Mesopotamia
• Zones run mostly north-south
1. Coastal plain
2. Hill country
3. Jordan Valley/Rift Valley
4. Transjordan escarpment
5. Eastern desert
But also desert (Negev) in the south
En Gedi on the shores
of the Dead Sea
Israel coastal plain
hill country
Wadis leading toward the Dead Sea
Basalt desert,
eastern
Jordan
Chronology
• Late Chalcolithic: c. 4500 – 3500 BCE
• Little agreement on subdivisions of this period
• Also not much agreement on preceding period(s)
– derived out of Late Neolithic?
– intervening early Chalcolithic phase(s), for example, Wadi Rabah?
– regionally distinct?
– in any event, development seems to be gradual
• Variable knowledge of different regions and considerable
regionalization
– we will focus on southern Levant, especially Beersheva / northern
Negev region and southern Jordan Valley
• Influence of Biblical archaeology
– terminologies
– assumptions
• Also comparisons to developments in Mesopotamia and Egypt
Settlement patterns
• Substantial growth in numbers of sites
compared to preceding periods
• Appearance of some large sites, around 10
ha – 2-tier hierarchy, especially in
Beersheva Valley
– Larger sites include Shiqmim, Bir es-Safadi
– In Jordan Valley, Tuleilat Ghassul is 20 ha,
and thereby the largest known Chalcolithic
site in southern Levant
• Small sites: villages
• Also numerous sherd scatters, especially in
Jordan Valley – perhaps camps of herders
• Expansion of settled areas – from better
watered coastal plain, where most earlier
settlement was concentrated, into semi-arid
hills and desert areas
– Evidence for use of irrigation techniques,
such as basin irrigation, use of springs
Subsistence practices
• Crops included wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas
• But also olives, dates, and variety of other fruits and nuts
– Olives already used in earlier times, but now probably domesticated
– Olive oil seems to have been important and desired product
– Chemical signatures of olive oil found in “torpedo” jars; oil probably
transported in these vessels
• Domesticated animals included sheep, goat, cattle and pig
– Quantity of pig appears related to climate; where (semi-) arid there
was little or none
– Hunted animals of various kinds (gazelle, equid, birds, etc.), but
they played limited economic role
• In at least some cases, evidence of keeping sheep to old age;
probably a sign of the importance of wool
• Use of pack animals – based on skeletal pathologies (cattle)
and figurines
Ram from Gilat with cornets on its backAnimal from Ein Gedi with churn
Depictions of pack animals
Architecture
• Rectangular, ‘broad-room’ houses
– Entrance on one long side
– Bench or platform
– In Telailat Ghassul some have wall
paintings
• But also (semi-)subterranean and
curvilinear architecture
– For example, at Shiqmim, Bir es-
Safadi
– Underground chambers connected
by tunnels
– Sometimes with pits or bins
– Originally thought to be earliest
phase of houses in settlements
– But probably more for storage and
defense than daily life
T. Ghassul
Golan region
Subterranean architecture at Shiqmim
Above-ground architecture at Shiqmim
Traces of metallurgy close to the site
(grey spots in the photograph above)
Levy et al. 1987
Some sites interpreted as sanctuaries or places
of pilgrimage
• Buildings similar in general plan to broad-room houses, but with
special features
• En Gedi enclosed by wall, with gate
– Pits containing burnt animal horn cores and pottery (especially
fenestrated bowls)
– Central feature interpreted as altar with special animal figurine, lots
of ash and broken bits of shell, beads, figurines
– Basin in courtyard for use with liquids
• Gilat – buildings surrounding an open area, thought to be for
gatherings
– Lots of special/unusual artifacts
– Little evidence of domestic occupation
• Also presumable cultic buildings in settlements
– T. Ghassul – a broad-room building with possible altar, offering pits
and storage room with numerous cornets
En Gedi
Gilat
En Gedi:
Gate to complex
Round “altar”
in courtyard
View from En Gedi to
Dead Sea
Teleilat Ghassul
• excavations begun in
1928
• site consists of
numerous tells
• occupied from Late
Neolithic through Late
Chalcolithic
• some town planning:
streets, covered drains
Teleilat Ghassul: wall painting
• little known about context in which discovered
Pottery
• Considerable variety of forms,
especially open forms
– V-shaped bowls, bowls with
fenestrated stands, basins
– Pithoi, globular pots, holemouth jars
– Also special forms, such as churns,
with residues of milk fat; torpedo
jars with residues of olive oil;
cornets, thought to be connected to
cultic activities
V-shaped
bowls
churns
torpedo
jar
cornets
holemouth jars
Pottery from Bir es-Safadi
Rowan & Golden 2009; Levy et al 1987
Pottery from Shiqmim
Pottery
• Use of fast wheel, especially for bowls and hole-mouth forms
– But also regional variation in terms of how frequently it was used
– And much pottery still handmade
• Compared to previous periods, more standardized decorations
and proliferation of forms
– Plain band of red paint around rim of V-shaped bowls, cornets
• Bowls made in clear size categories
• Petrographic studies show that pottery was produced locally at
most sites
– But no production at Gilat
– Torpedo vessels tend to be made of non-local clays: as one would
expect if these were primarily used to transport olive oil
Copper Metallurgy
• Seems to have been more sophisticated and further developed in
southern Levant than anywhere in Mesopotamia at this time
• Divided into supposedly utilitarian items (chisels, axes, adzes, awls,
pins, needles, knives) and complex symbolic items (scepters,
standards, ‘crowns’, vessels, maceheads)
– Many ‘utilitarian’ items probably not actually used as tools, either
Copper metallurgy
• Copper deposits in Negev (Wadi Feinan and Timna)
– These were exploited for some copper production
– But many of the copper artifacts found are not from these local sources
• Tools and symbolic objects were made in different ways
– Tools made of more or less pure copper; cast in open molds, then
annealed and hammered
– Symbolic objects made of various copper alloys, using a ‘lost wax’
technique; location(s) of these copper sources remains uncertain
• Evidence for smelting at places such as Shiqmim and Abu Matar
– In households, not in central workshops
– However, some indication at Abu Matar that copper smelting may have
become more aggregated over time, perhaps into workshops
– For making tools
– No workplaces yet identified where the complex symbolic forms were
produced
– Note that most evidence for copper working is in the northern Negev,
approximately 100 km or more from Timna and Wadi Feinan sources
Copper sources in the
southern Levant
• Ores from both Wadi Feinan and
Timna had to be mined
– Possible using shallow pits
• Smelting attested in both places,
but in limited amounts
– Mostly ores seem to have been
transported to places like those
in Beersheva valley for smelting
• To produce 1 kg copper requires
about 20-60 kg charcoal, which
requires even more wood
• Different scholarly opinions as to
whether copper smelting was
elite controlled (“attached
specialists”) or not
Sites with evidence for copper metallurgy
Hoards and caches
• Most famous is Nahal Mishmar, in a
cave near the Dead Sea
• Nahal Qanah in western highlands –
mortuary context
– Copper artifacts and basalt vessels, but
also gold and electrum ingots
Other kinds of production
• Stone vessels and mortars, especially of basalt
– Source in northern Jordan and Golan region; most basalt vessels
from northern sites
– Also “pillar figures”
• Shell – from Nile, Red Sea, Mediterranean
• Ivory – from elephants as well as hippopotami
Hippopotamus tusk with circular
perforations from N. Mishmar
Still living in
Mediterranean coastal
waters at the time
“Cult objects”
• In addition to buildings and sites (Gilat, En Gedi) interpreted as
sanctuaries or pilgrimage places, also ritual or cultic objects
– “Violin-shaped figurines,” typically made of stone – most from Gilat
– Special anthropomorphic and zoomorphic ceramic figurines
– Ivory figurines – often found in caches
– Pottery cornets; torpedo jars filled with olive oil
– Box ossuaries with facial features
Ritual organization
• Why the heavy emphasis on ritual in interpretations of southern
Levant Chalcolithic?
– Lots of elaborate, apparently highly symbolic artifacts
– Some of them deposited in specific and sometimes unusual places:
hoards, caves, sites in special locations
– What about the influence of the place (“Holy Land”)?
• Some people suggest religion was relatively non-hierarchical,
not institutionalized
– Shamans
• Others think there was institutionalized hierarchy, with full-time
priests and central pilgrimage places, such as Gilat
• Also indications of household ritual – for example, in Golan
region basalt pillar figures found in many houses
– In other words, not only some kind of centralized, ‘public’ ritual
Social organization
• Some argue for chiefdoms
– But little architectural differentiation
– Little evidence of elaborate burials
• Does not seem to be egalitarian, based on the wide range of
elaborate artifacts and use of imported exotic goods
– Exotic goods often found in caches or other special deposits
– Craft specialization and technologies that were not available to
everyone
• Also possibility that some things we view as ‘luxury goods’ were
not necessarily so
– When copper sources are nearby, not all copper objects are
necessarily of high value
– Although quite unlikely that the elaborate forms were everyday
items
• Political power, to extent present, probably quite limited in
spatial reach, especially compared to Mesopotamia