Haskel Joseph Greenfield

University of Manitoba | UMN · Department of Anthropology

Most studies of ritual and symbolism in early complex societies of the Near East have focused on elite and/or public behavioural domains. However, the vast bulk of the population would not have been able to fully participate in such public displays. This paper explores the zooarchaeological and associated archaeological evidence for household ritua...

In the southern Levant, metal technology was first represented by exotic and prestige items during the Chalcolithic. Later, in the Early Bronze Age, metal implements were gradually adopted for domestic tasks. Since metal tools are rare in the archaeological record, the spread of metal technology can be traced through proxy measures, such as butcher...

The origin of metallurgy is usually monitored via the appearance and frequency of various types of metal items. Quantifying the distribution of metal versus stone tool types over time and space can provide insight into the processes underlying the introduction and diffusion of a functional metallurgical technology for subsistence activities, but is...

This is a commentary on a recent article published in PEQ (‘Cultural Modification Analyses on Faunal Remains in Relation to Space Use and Direct Provisioning from Field VI EBIIIA Tell el-Hesi’ by Kara Larson, James W. Hardin, and Sara Cody, PEQ volume 152, number 4). It shows how the authors came to an incorrect conclusion through the inappropriate...

The ongoing discussion on the nature of the organization of Early Bronze Age settlements and their social structure in an intensely settled part of the southern Levant (independent 'city-states' vs 'neither cities nor states') calls for data on which to base our understanding of shared economic patterns and regional connections. Here, we report the...

Systematic archaeological excavations at the multicultural site of Foeni-Sălaş in the Romanian Banat conducted during the first half of the 1990s uncovered evidence that the site was inhabited during the Early Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Early Iron, Late Antique and Medieval Ages. This paper summarises the cultural history of the settlement at the s...

The organization of craft production has long been a marker for broader social, economic and political changes that accompanied urbanism. The identity of producers who comprised production groups, communities, or workshops is out of reach using conventional archaeological data. There has been some success using epidermal prints on artefacts to iden...

In this paper, we describe the results of our recent excavations of the later EB III occupation at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. The research has demonstrated that Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath is a large (ca. 24 ha) and significant regional center, surrounded by a thick and extensive fortification system with a high stone foundation and mud-brick superstructure. Systema...

Multiple arguments for or against the presence of 'urban' settlements in the Early Bronze Age of the southern Levant have identified the need to compare these settlements against their rural hinterlands through multiple lines of evidence. This meta-analysis of zooarchaeo-logical data from the region compares and identifies patterns of animal produc...

The organization of craft production has long been a marker for broader social, economic, and political changes that accompanied urbanism. The identity of producers who comprised production groups, communities, or workshops is out of reach using conventional archaeological data. There has been some success using epidermal prints on artifacts to ide...

Previously identified periods of aridity in the palaeoclimate record for the Near East have been argued to have greatly impacted ancient societies, causing widespread changes to food production and the collapse of multiple ancient civilizations. This study employs a meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age of th...

In this paper, we present an alternative approach for identifying pottery production groups by classifying shaping techniques on freshly cut thick sections. We expand existing identification criteria by piloting a new method for characterising vessel structure. We demonstrate how this simple and low-cost method permits clear and rapid identificatio...

The study of the exploitation of animals for traction in prehistoric Europe has been linked to the ‘secondary products revolution’. Such an approach, however, leaves little scope for identification of the less specialised exploitation of animals for traction during the European Neolithic. This study presents zooarchaeological evidence—in the form o...

Microscopic analysis of butchering marks on bones from Neolithic to Hellenistic deposits at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, are employed as a proxy measure for identifying the rate and nature of adoption of metallurgy for quotidian activities. During the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, only stone tools were being used for butchering. In the post-Neolithic...

Through the years, there has been a great deal of archaeological research focused on the earliest farming cultures of Europe (i.e. Early Neolithic). However, little effort has been expended to uncover the type and nature of daily activities performed within Early Neolithic pit house dwellings in the northern Balkans. In this paper, we conduct a spa...

The origin of domestic donkeys (Equus asinus dom.) appears to lie in northeastern Africa, somewhere in the region of Somalia, Sudan, and Ethiopia. They were domesticated from the Nubian ass (Equus asinus fer.) sometime early in fourth millennium b.c.e., or around the end of the Chalcolithic (Kimura et al. 2010; Milevski 2009: 251; Rossel et al. 200...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196335.].

Analysis of a sacrificed and interred domestic donkey from an Early Bronze Age (EB) IIIB (c. 2800–2600 BCE) domestic residential neighborhood at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, indicate the presence of bit wear on the Lower Premolar 2 (LPM2). This is the earliest evidence for the use of a bit among early domestic equids, and in particular donkeys, in th...

In this paper, we propose an alternative analytical method for identifying vessel shaping techniques at the mesoscopic scale to complement current micro and macro methods in ceramic analysis. We demonstrate how this simple and low cost method permits clear and rapid identification of the signatures indicative of different pottery shaping techniques...

It is often assumed that domestic animals in early urban Near Eastern centres either are a reflection of the local pastoral economy, or were raised at a distance by pastoral specialists. In this paper, we test these assumptions through detailed isotopic analyses (carbon, oxygen and strontium) of caprines (sheep and goat) from Tell es-Safi/Gath, an...

The discovery of a sacrificed puppy at Tel Miqne-Ekron, a major Philistine settlement in Israel’s southern coastal plain, highlights the role of dogs in Iron I Philistia. Though dog sacrifice is described in Hittite religious texts and attested in lands bordering the Aegean during the second- first millennia BCE, evidence for this practice, or even...

Microdebris are the tiny remnants of activities that are not cleaned up after an activity is completed (fig. 1). Such activities are often archaeologically invisible with standard macrolevel artifact collection and analysis techniques. If microdebris are systematically and spatially collected across surfaces and different depositional contexts, the...

In 1899, Bliss and Macalister launched a brief but intensive campaign of excavation at the site of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath and uncovered evidence for a large-scale fortification system and thick deposits from various time periods. While they argued that the majority of remains, including the fortifications, were of Iron Age or later origin, some Early Br...

This book honors the memory of Brian Hesse, a scholar of Near Eastern archaeology, a writer of alliterative and punned publication titles, and an accomplished amateur photographer. Hesse specialized in zooarchaeology, but he influenced a wider range of excavators and ancient historians with his broad interpretive reach. He spent much of his career...

The Early Bronze Age (ca. 2850-2500 BCE) ceramic technology project at Tell es-Safi/Gath is part of a broad front-forward movement in knowledge to advance understanding of the making of prehistoric vessels, in recognition of the wider anthropological significance of techniques and the co-becoming of crafters and the objects they make. The project c...

The organisation of production in early state societies in the Near East is often assumed to involve the development of specialised workshops. Yet little attention has been paid to the organization of production in domestic contexts. In this paper, we use the classification of variability in pottery forming techniques to investigate the organizatio...

Pebble stone installations are commonly found at various Early Bronze Age sites in the southern Levant. However, their function is often assumed or unknown. Thirteen circular pebble installations were found scattered throughout a residential neighbourhood dating to the Early Bronze Age III at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Five such installations were recently...

In this pilot study, we show how a simple and low cost ceramic analytical method permits clear and rapid identification of features indicative of shaping techniques. This mesoscopic approach facilitates a more complete understanding of the manufacturing sequence and the organisation of production at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel.

Ongoing excavations at the Early Bronze Age III settlement of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel have recovered a small assemblage of basalt ground stone objects in a residential neighbourhood. As high quality basalt is not found within the Shephelah (the Judean foothills), the occurrence of basalt artefacts at settlements in this region has frequently been...

Isotope data from a sacrificial ass and several ovicaprines (sheep/goat) from Early Bronze Age household deposits at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel provide direct evidence for the movement of domestic draught/draft and husbandry animals between Old Kingdom Egypt (during the time of the Pyramids) and Early Bronze Age III Canaan (ca. 2900–2500 BCE). Vacil...

Phases of the Early Bronze Age in Israel. (DOCX)

87Sr/86Sr ratios for ovicaprines. (DOCX)

Contextual and excavation data of sacrificial ass (Equus asinus) and ovicaprines. (DOCX)

Carbon and oxygen isotope values for sacrificial ass (Equus asinus). (DOCX)

Carbon and oxygen isotope values for ovicaprines. (DOCX)

Bivariate plots of individual ovicaprines (digits 1–5, blue dots) and sacrificed ass (M1-M3, red dots) tooth enamel δ13C values against δ18O values (a), and 87Sr/86Sr ratios (b). Error bars represent ±1σ. (EPS)

Local baseline modern plants. (DOCX)

87Sr/86Sr for the sacrificial ass (Equus asinus). (DOCX)

With the emergence of urban culture in the southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age, new types of pottery and ceramic techniques appeared, among them pottery (usually combed) coated with a white material. A selection of sherds from Early Bronze strata was studied in an attempt to analyze this material. Using microscopy and various other methods, the...

In this paper, we review the evidence for the use of the domestic donkey as a mode of transportation in the Early Bronze Age. The study will present the domestic donkey remains (artefactual and zoological) and their archaeological context from the Early Bronze Age III domestic neighborhood at Tell es-Safi/Gath. The remains indicate the significant...

Workshop in ICAANE 2016 The topic of this workshop concerns groundstone tools and rock-cut installations in the Near East from all periods. These two categories of objects have often been overlooked by archaeologists, yet they are very frequent in the archaeological record and, more importantly, their study can reveal crucial aspects of ancient soc...

This paper describes some of the results of the excavations of the Early Bronze Age III non-elite neighbourhood in Area E of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel. The neighbourhood contained a layout that is found at other EB urban centres, including sturdy small multi-room houses, often with a courtyard and in few cases a small storage room. Occupants had ac...

Recent archaeological excavations at the early urban settlement of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel present the opportunity to reconstruct the life-history of basalt ground stone artefacts of an early urban domestic neighbourhood. Tell es-Safi/Gath is a multi-period site located on the border between the Judean foothills and the southern coastal plain of...

Tell es-Safi/Gath is a multi-period site located on the border between the Judean foothills (Shephelah) and the southern coastal plain in central Israel, which has been subject to survey and excavations over the last two decades. Excavations by Bliss and Macalister in 1899 exposed a fortification system which was dated to the “Jewish period”. In th...

Description of the creation and history of activities in NEBAL

The origins of secondary product exploitation for domestic livestock, in particular milking, is a long-standing debate in archaeology. This paper re-analyses zooarchaeological age-at-death data from the central Balkans of south eastern Europe to demonstrate that the earliest intensive milking in this region probably occurred through the exploitatio...