Evidence of specialized sheep-hunting camp discovered in prehistoric Lebanon

Anthropologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have confirmed the existence more than 10,000 years ago of a hunting camp in what is now northeastern Lebanon - one that straddles the period marking the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural settlements at the onset of the last stone age.

Views of Nachcharini Cave and environs [Credit: Stephen Rhodes et al. 2020]

Analysis of decades-old data collected from Nachcharini Cave high in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range that forms the modern-day border between Lebanon and Syria, shows the site was a short-term hunting camp that served as a temporary outpost to emerging and more substantial villages elsewhere in the region, and that sheep were the primary game.

The finding confirms the hypothesis of retired U of T archaeologist Bruce Schroeder, who excavated the site on several occasions beginning in 1972, but who had to discontinue his work when the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975.

"The site represents the best evidence of a special-purpose camp - not a village or settlement - in the region," said Stephen Rhodes, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T and lead author of a study published in PLOS ONE. "The cave was a contemporary of larger settlements further south in the Jordan Valley, and is the first site of its kind to show the predominance of sheep among the animals hunted by its temporary inhabitants."

El Khiam points and variants from Nachcharini, St. 4d
[Credit: Stephen Rhodes et al. 2020]

Radiocarbon dating of animal bones recovered from the site shows that it dates to an era known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), a period from about 10,000-8,000 BCE during which the cultivation of crops, the construction of mud-brick dwellings and other practices of domestication began to emerge. The stone tools found at the sites are mostly tiny arrowheads used for hunting. The new dates presented place the main deposits at the cave securely in the PPNA.

"Previous dates established in the 1970s were problematic and far too recent for unknown reasons, possibly due to contamination or incorrect processing," said Rhodes, who coauthored the study with Professors Edward Banning and Michael Chazan, both members of the Department of Anthropology at U of T. "The results highlight the fact that people in the PPNA took advantage of a wide variety of habitats in a complex system of subsistence practices."

It was already known that sheep hunting was practiced in this region throughout periods that preceded the PPNA, and the evidence found at Nachcharini Cave reinforces that understanding. According to Rhodes, it consolidates our knowledge of the natural range of sheep, which pertains to a potential beginning of domestication in later years.

"We are not saying that hunters at Nachcharini were engaged in early stages of this domestication," he said. "But the evidence of a local tradition makes this area a possible centre of sheep domestication later on."

Source: University of Toronto [January 22, 2020]

Study reveals two writers penned landmark inscriptions in 8th-century BCE Samaria

The ancient Samaria ostraca -- eighth-century BCE ink-on-clay inscriptions unearthed at the beginning of the 20th century in Samaria, the capital of the biblical kingdom of Israel -- are among the earliest collections of ancient Hebrew writings ever discovered. But despite a century of research, major aspects of the ostraca remain in dispute, including their precise geographical origins -- either Samaria or its outlying villages -- and the number of scribes involved in their composition.

Ostraca (ink on clay inscriptions) from Samaria, the capital of biblical Israel. The inscriptions are dated to the
 early 8th century BCE. Colorized Ostraca images are courtesy of the Semitic Museum, Harvard University
[Credit: American Friends of Tel Aviv University/Semitic Museum, Harvard University]

A new Tel Aviv University (TAU) study finds that just two writers were involved in composing 31 of the more than 100 inscriptions and that the writers were contemporaneous, indicating that the inscriptions were written in the city of Samaria itself.

The inscriptions list repetitive shipment details of wine and oil supplies to Samaria and span a minimal period of seven years. For archaeologists, they also provide critical insights into the logistical infrastructure of the kingdom of Israel. The inscriptions feature the date of composition (year of a given monarch), commodity type (oil, wine), name of a person, name of a clan and name of a village near the capital. Based on letter-shape considerations, the ostraca have been dated to the first half of the eighth century BCE, possibly during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel.

"If only two scribes wrote the examined Samaria texts contemporaneously and both were located in Samaria rather than in the countryside, this would indicate a palace bureaucracy at the peak of the kingdom of Israel's prosperity," Prof. Finkelstein explains.

"Our results, accompanied by other pieces of evidence, seem also to indicate a limited dispersion of literacy in Israel in the early eighth century BCE," Prof. Piasetzky says.

"Our interdisciplinary team harnessed a novel algorithm, consisting of image processing and newly developed machine learning techniques, to conclude that two writers wrote the 31 examined texts, with a confidence interval of 95%," said Dr. Sober, now a member of Duke University's mathematics department.

"The innovative technique can be used in other cases, both in the Land of Israel and beyond. Our innovative tool enables handwriting comparison and can establish the number of authors in a given corpus," adds Faigenbaum-Golovin.

The new research follows up from the findings of the group's 2016 study, which indicated widespread literacy in the kingdom of Judah a century and a half to two centuries later, circa 600 BCE. For that study, the group developed a novel algorithm with which they estimated the minimal number of writers involved in composing ostraca unearthed at the desert fortress of Arad. That investigation concluded that at least six writers composed the 18 inscriptions that were examined.

"It seems that during these two centuries that passed between the composition of the Samaria and the Arad corpora, there was an increase in literacy rates within the population of the Hebrew kingdoms," Dr. Shaus says. "Our previous research paved the way for the current study. We enhanced our previously developed methodology, which sought the minimum number of writers, and introduced new statistical tools to establish a maximum likelihood estimate for the number of hands in a corpus."

Research for the study was conducted by Ph.D. candidate Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, Dr. Arie Shaus, Dr. Barak Sober and Prof. Eli Turkel, all of TAU's School of Mathematical Sciences; Prof. Eli Piasetzky of TAU's School of Physics; and Prof. Israel Finkelstein, Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze and Iron Ages, of TAU's Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. The study was published in PLOS ONE.

Next, the researchers intend to use their methodology to study other corpora of inscriptions from various periods and locations.

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University [January 22, 2020]

Knights' Hall built by the Crusaders discovered in Western Syria

New archaeological finds were located at the sites of Amrit, Safita, and Marqab, in the Syrian Mediterranean province of Tartus, according to media in Damascus.

14th-century miniature from William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer of a battle during the Second Crusade,
National Library of France, Department of Manuscripts, French 22495 fol. 154V
[Credit: Combat Deuxieme Croisade]

In recent excavations, pottery and clay objects, an ancient grave and the exact location of the Knights' Hall, built by the Crusaders in the middle of the 12th century, were found, Marwan Hassan explained, head of the Archaeology Department in that province, 258 km northwest of the Syrian capital.

Hassan explained that the excavation it was found that the Talus “a diagonal wall” that was in fact part of an outer wall of the Knights' Hall and not part of the reinforcement wall of the gate.

The Tartous Archaeology Department managed to locate the Knights’ Hall that the
Crusaders built in the middle of the 13th century AD at Chastel Blanc's keep
[Credit: WikiCommons]

The expert indicated that these excavation works are extended to Al-Marqab Castle by a joint Syrian-Hungarian mission, where they found pottery sherds and other pieces by using the latest technological methods.

He also noted that, based on the importance of scientific research of the historical stages of the Syrian coasts, a Syrian-Russian team was formed to search for archaeological remains and sites in the waters off the city of Tartus and Arwad Island.

Those works, Hassan said, also include areas of Armit Beach, with modern surveying devices that will enable the advance of these studies this year.

Source: Prensa Latina [January 21, 2020]

Excavations at ancient sanctuary in Jordan Valley offer glimpse into area’s religious past

During the ninth season of excavation at Tell Damiyah (Damiyah Hill) in the central Jordan Valley, a joint project of the Yarmouk University and the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, a team of researchers uncovered three additional rooms of a religious complex dating to around 700 BC, a Dutch scholar said.

The archaeological research at the Tell Damiyah site is directed by Dr Lucas Petit, Head of Collections and Research
 Department at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, and Dr Zeidan Kafafi, professor of archaeology
 at Yarmouk University, Jordan. The main objective is to reconstruct the occupational history of the site
from 1400 to 500 BC [Credit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]

“Finds of previous seasons, such as clay statues and figurines, have astonished the world since in-situ religious contexts are extremely rare in the southern Levant,” said archaeologist Lucas Petit, adding that the discovery of non-local objects in and around the complex suggests that the sanctuary was used by local as well as international people.

Travellers and traders were welcomed at Tell Damiyah seemingly independent of their cultural and religious background, Petit continued, adding that nothing inside the sanctuary gives a clue about the type of deities that were worshipped.

Erwin and Martijn Kanters scan one of the storage rooms
[Credit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]

“Taking into account that during the Iron Age II [1000-550 BC], religion in this area changed gradually from polytheism to monotheism, we consider Tell Damiyah a very liberal place of worship,” the scholar said.

He added that during the previous season, the team uncovered two rooms of the complex, which contained storage jars filled with burnt food products including barley and wheat.

Clay statue of a female figure with traces of paint
[Credit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]

“Since the settlement is very small and only partly inhabited, these food supplies support our idea that Damiyah was a kind of caravanserai [a roadside inn where caravaners could rest] with a sanctuary,” the scholar added.

He also noted that inscriptions found at Tell Mazar, which is close to Tell Damiyah, can be dated to the 6th century  BC, the Persian period (5th century BC) and the early Hellenistic period (4th-3rd century BC).

The team of researchers from Yarmouk University and the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities
working at Tell Damiyah in the central Jordan Valley [Credit: Lucas Petit]

“Not all inscriptions were found in a good context, and the texts have suffered severe degeneration. It is therefore difficult to use those texts for understanding the area or for constructing its history,” Petit said, adding that both the content as well as the script are nonetheless a significant addition to the relatively small corpus of inscriptions from the central Jordan Valley.

In Autumn 2019, researchers at the excavation site at Tell Damiyah discovered four sherds with inscriptions, very comparable to those discovered at Tell Mazar, both in terms of inscriptions and date. Research on these objects is ongoing, the archaeologist added.

Author: Saeb Rawashdeh | Source: The Jordan Times [January 20, 2020]

2,000-year-old burials found near ancient city of Laodicea in SW Turkey

Survey excavations that have been carried out in a field for the construction of a stadium have unearthed 2,000-year-old burials. The area in the western Turkish province of Denizli was declared a first-degree excavations area, while another place will be searched for the stadium, the Denizli Metropolitan Municipality announced.

Credit: DHA

Some time ago, the municipality applied to the Aydın Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board to carry out a survey in a field of 70,000 square meters in a third-degree archaeological site, located close to the ancient city of Laodicea in Eskihisar neighborhood, for the construction of a new stadium.

Upon the application, archaeological drilling was carried out in the region under the supervision of Laodicea excavation team and the museum directorate.

Credit: DHA

During the drilling, carried out in the south of Laodicea highway, where the stadium was planned to be constructed, a nearly 2,000-year-old burial vault surrounded with a wall was discovered.

During the excavations, a rectangular family burial chamber was uncovered. A travertine sarcophagus and tombs were found in the burial chamber.

Credit: DHA

Inside the tombs were a bronze Empire Caracalla coin (211-217 AD), a silver plated Empire Valerianus coin (253-260 AD) along with four glass bottles, some of which were broken, two terracotta bottles, 11 terracotta oil lamps, Eros figure head, three terracotta bowls, terracotta cooking pots, five bone hair pins, bone spoon pieces and a rectangular bronze box fragment that has been corroded and tomb gifts.

It was stated that the skeletons were destroyed, dispersed and some parts of them were completely melted because of humidity in the field and burglars. The historical artifacts were taken under protection by the Denizli Museum Directorate.

Credit: DHA

The area, which was the third-degree archaeological site, was declared a first-degree archaeological site with the presence of the historical tomb. Another area will be looked for the stadium to be built by the Denizli Metropolitan Municipality.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [January 17, 2020]