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Publications (120)
The production of pottery in East Asia can be traced back to approximately 20,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherer communities utilised pottery for many years before transitioning to agriculture in regions such as China, Japan, and the Russian Far East. While there has been much debate surrounding pottery production in hunter-gatherer societies, little a...
Unalloyed copper objects were produced in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant in a two-step process. Copper ore was smelted in pit furnaces, and the mechanically extracted copper prills melt in crucibles and cast into objects. However, the air supply remained unknown, and practical considerations shed doubt on the validity of some of the reconstructed...
Apart from many lost wax cast metal fragments, crucible fragments and several heated sediment nodules were found at the Chalcolithic site Fazael 2 (central Jordan Valley). Petrographic investigations on the heated sediment nodules revealed many features characteristic of the Chalcolithic Southern Levantine lost wax casting moulds. Heating temperatu...
Excavations at the Chalcolithic site Fazael in the central Jordan Valley uncovered a large number of metal items, many of them polymetallic copper alloys cast in the lost wax technique. Metallography and SEM–EDS analysis on a subset of the assemblage confirm previous notions of the lost wax metallurgy in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant but extend...
Apart from mould and core remnants attached to metal objects from the Chalcolithic Southern Levant (ca. 4500–3800 BCE), production remains of early lost wax casting are seemingly invisible in the archaeological record. An experiment using reproduced casting moulds was performed to simulate the Chalcolithic processes to investigate whether the mould...
Located in the steep hilly terrain of the Upper Galilee, the Iron Age I mountain fort of Mt. Adir dominates its surroundings. The region’s topography has limited population growth throughout history, which in turn has limited archaeological research. This situation is improving however, with renewed surveys, excavations and re-examination of unpubl...
Call for an open Ph.D. position in the field of archaeomaterials The Track in Archaeomaterials and Conservation Sciences (BGU-TACS) at the department of archeology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), calls on those with a master's degree in archeology and/or one of the relevant fields mentioned below, to study for a doctorate combining ar...
An investigation of the three Achaemenid throne parts housed in The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, reported to be from Samaria, found that they were made of bronze but with ceramic material that adhered to their interior. The purpose of the study was to determine their provenance, provenience and manufacturing techniques. As museum pieces, this had to b...
Understanding the materialities and technologies of clay cuneiform tablets is a relatively new branch in archaeological sciences. Scholars still dispute the precise location of several cities and kingdoms that appear in the texts. A century of textual and archaeological research has clarified some of these problems, but many issues still remain uns...
Excavations at Nahal Tsafit, on the Rotem Plain in the northeastern Negev, have uncovered a Middle Timnian encampment dated to the late 5th/early 4th millennia B.C.E. A large tumulus field, comprising 115 large cairns and three open-air shrines characteristic of the early phases of Timnian culture, was surveyed on the ridge above the site. Although...
Wall paintings are complex, heterogeneous structures open to the environment and composed of multiple layers. Additionally, they are frequently located in remote areas, where basic infrastructure is not available. The causes and mechanisms involved in the complex deterioration phenomena, which wall paintings are often subjected to, are therefore di...
Small rectangular incense altars found in the Levant have been considered as a diagnostic cult object. Two such altars and two additional fragments were discovered at Tell Halif in domestic contexts. While scholars still debate the place of production of such altars, provenience analysis of the raw materials used for the production of the Halif alt...
Twelve plaster units and two sediment blocks from the ‘precinct’ structure at the Minoan site of Koumasa, Crete, were sampled for a microarchaeological study, with the aim of examining the technology of their production and pigment production and application techniques, employing micromorphology, pXRF and ESEM/EDS. The results demonstrate that plas...
Here we present the results of a micromorphological study conducted on the recently excavated layers in a tholos tomb - Tholos Beta - at the Minoan site at Koumasa, Crete, during the 2013–2014 excavation seasons. This was also a unique opportunity to conduct a detailed research on in situ unexcavated archaeological layers in a Minoan tholos tomb, a...
A micromorphological investigation was conducted at the Late Mousterian site of ‘Ein Qashish in the western part
of the Jezre’el Valley, northern Israel. Various archaeological and geomorphological features were studied during the
2011 excavation season, using micromorphological methods, aiming at identifying human activities at the site, and
under...
A petrographic study has been conducted on 181 identifiable, mostly complete vessels originating from Ḥorvat Qarqar South in the southern Shephelah, Israel. This is one of the largest Ghassulian Chalcolithic cemeteries in the southern Levant known to date. The results of the petrographic study demonstrate that 49% of the examined vessels were made...
This article presents a new method for on-site preparation of large-size micromorphological thin sections. This method is applicable for a broad range of disciplines, including but not unique to sedimentology, soil science, geology, and archaeology. We focus on testing a rapid on-site impregnation using low-viscosity Epoxy resin, a method that cuts...
This paper presents the results of a petrographic study conducted on a selection of 88 Cypriot ceramic Neolithic vessels, originating at seven sites, representing various geographic regions on the island. The study is aimed at determining their place of origin and disclosing details about the technology of their production. All the vessels studied...
Twenty-two clay bullae associated with mid-4th century BCE Samaria Papyri from the cave of Wadi Daliyeh were subjected to structural, technical and petrographic examination. Results suggest that the bullae were all made in the Samaria region from several types of local soils. The technology and function of the bullae differ from those of earlier (I...
The Kura-Araxes phenomenon, represented by its trademark pottery, is one of the most intriguing examples of cultural expansion in the Bronze Age world. Technological analysis of pottery assemblages, providing insight into relations between producers, users, pots and the environment, can be a key to understand how the culture was maintained over tim...
The cultural interpretation of the southern Levant during the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500-3700 cal B.C.E.) has been one of the most dynamic fields for nearly a century of archaeological research in this region. Since the discovery of Chalcolithic remains at Teleilat Ghassul in Jordan in the 1920s-30s, our understanding of Ghassulian culture (name...
Bullae are small lumps of clay, often fingernail-sized and shaped as flat disks, which were usually affixed to a cord binding a commodity or a document and then stamped with a seal. Hebrew bullae from the time of the Kingdom of Judah are known from recorded excavations as well as from the antiquities market. This article reports the results of a se...
This article presents a procedure for petrographic and micromorphological thin-section preparation and examination in extra-laboratory and field conditions. Employing basic, frequently-improvised, off-the-shelf equipment, standard petrographic thin sections of rocks, sediments, ceramics, mortars, and plasters can be produced and examined. Use of th...
As mentioned, the dominance of containers at Dor unequivocally attests that they represent an exchange mechanism that should probably be interpreted along commercial lines. It persisted through approximately two and a half centuries (ca. 1100-850 BCE) and in fact may have been of longer duration. Deposits of the second half of the 13th century BCE...
A tiny fragment of a cuneiform tablet was recovered in the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem in 2013. Even smaller than the fragment recovered in the 2009-2010 excavations (published in IEJ 60), the fragment preserves only parts of five signs. Nevertheless, on the basis of the provenance study and an analysis of the physical tablet and sign forms, we...
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 197...
In this article, we survey the verification tests made on several controversial Biblical archaeological artifacts through the analysis of the nature of their patina coatings. The combined methods of surface examination described below, were applied to examine the authenticity includes a burial box (ossuary) attributed to James the brother of Jesus,...
The article presents results of a petrographic investigation of pottery from Iron IIA settlements in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel. It focuses on a group of almost exclusively handmade wares that are tempered with crushed slag. The polarizing and electron microscopes explicitly identify these inclusions as copper smelting slag. Based on th...
The present article presents a new concept for a light optical field microscope developed after two decades of attempts to find a portable, yet versatile and capable, instrument for extra-laboratory research. Emphasis was put on a portable microscope with polarizing capabilities, yet versatile enough to perform in other configurations. After testin...
A bulla fragment was found in the excavations of Tel Aviv University at the City of David/Silwan. It is made out of local terra rossa soil, and the reading is: קם // ---לך --- The names אחיקם and אליקם are the best candidates for the name in the upper register. The title “עבד המלך” is the best candidate for the title in the lower register. The seal...
Cet article livre les resultats de la fouille de sauvetage effectuee a Bir el-Maksur, un site du Neolithique pre-ceramique A (PPNA) situe en Basse Galilee, dans le nord d’Israel, ou a ete mise au jour une vaste occupation avec de riches assemblages. Malgre l’absence de structures architecturales claires, les nombreux artefacts permettent de reconst...
Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) apparatus of the last generation was tested to determine its potential for routine provenance determination of clay cuneiform tablets, which cannot be analyzed by “classical” intrusive methods. A group of tablets from Hattuša (Boğazköy) and from el Amarna, which were previously provenanced using optical mineralogy...
The Tantura F shipwreck was discovered in 1995 in Dor (Tantura) lagoon, about 70 m offshore. It was a coaster that plied the Levant coast during the local early Islamic period. Among the finds exposed in the wreck site were two iron anchors of the T-shaped type. This type of anchor, dated to between the second half of the fourth and the thirteenth...
The Israel Antiquities Authority recently acquired a decorated limestone ossuary purportedly from a burial cave in the area of the Elah Valley. An inscription, incised on the front of the ossuary, reads: ('Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas, priests of Maaziah from Beth Imri'). The script is formal, of the style common in ossuary inscription...
The Akko 1 shipwreck constitutes the remains of a small Mediterranean naval vessel, discovered in Akko harbour, Israel, and excavated over three seasons between 2006 and 2008. Among the finds at the shipwreck site were eleven cannonballs. Two of them, a 9-pdr and a 24-pdr, were retrieved and studied using metallurgical and petrographic methods. The...
A small fragment of a Late Bronze Age letter in Akkadian was discovered in the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem. Its sign-forms suggest that it is a rough contemporary of the Amarna letters, including the letters of Abdi-Heba, the ruler of Jerusalem. The analysis of the tablet by optical mineralogy, supported by XRF spectrometry, reveals that its raw...
First results of the comparative technology of Kura-Araxes pottery and its derivatives are presented, including analyses of Khirbet Kerak Ware and local traditions from Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet Kerak) and material from two sites in Armenia: the fourth millennium site of Aparan III and the third millennium site of Karnut I. Petrographic and chaîne opé...
Khirbet Kerak Ware has long been a magnet to students of late Levantine prehistory, offering insights into the long-distance connections at the edges of the Fertile Crescent. Despite a long history of study, the basic issues at stake—how technologies migrate and did the people who employed them migrate as well—remain unresolved. The approaches take...
A Late Bronze Age fragment of a clay cuneiform tablet with the Gilgamesh Epic was found in the 1950s on the surface at Megiddo. The presence of scribes in Megiddo is evident from the el-Amarna letters. This is the only first-class literary Mesopotamian text ever to be found in Canaan. The aim of the present study was to examine the origin of this t...
Cornets are cone-shaped ceramic vessels, characteristic of the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4700–3700 BC) in Israel and Jordan. Their contents and use are unknown. Gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass-selective detection, showed that extracts of cornets from five different sites with different related activities (domestic, habitation cave...
Secondary pit deposits in historical occupations of Near Eastern mounds are usually regarded as uninteresting and are seldom analyzed. We used an integrated approach to study all the artifacts as well as the sediments in a pit at Tel Dor, on Israel's Carmel coast, dating to the 7th c. BCE – a period when the site served as an Assyrian administrativ...
A characteristic hallmark of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) in the southern Levant was the extensive use of lime plaster for architectural and other purposes. Yet no obvious kilns have been identified in archaeological contexts. Here we present details of an experimental pit-kiln modeling lime-plaster production based on observed burnt stone ac...
The origins of southern Levantine Chalcolithic copper metallurgy have been debated for decades. Typological and metallurgical examinations of the copper artifacts from the Nahal Mishmar hoard and elsewhere have indicated a dichotomy between simple tools, made of pure copper by open casting, and elaborate items made by the “lost wax” technique of co...
Hearths are important archaeological features, serving to infer past practices related to hominin subsistence and social behaviors. The identification of hearths is not always straightforward due to post-depositional processes. In karstic cave environments in particular it is not always easy to distinguish, in the field or in the laboratory, betwee...
Elu:d Ruheibq o Nirsqno Fig. L Map of the Roman-Byzantine cities of the Negev desert. Fig. 2 unpublished photograph of the oboda potter's workshop during excavation, view to the southwest (courtesy A. Negev).
The question of the nature of social and economic life in the Chalcolithic southern Levant has recently been the subject of increasing interest. Several archaeological sites and features in Israel have been interpreted as elements of religion. These include the shrines at En-Gedi and Gilat and the Nahal Mishmar hoard. The results of petrographic an...
An interdisciplinary case study of the role of technology in ancient society is presented here based on a single copper object from the beginning of metallurgy in Israel during the late fifth to fourth millennium BC. This research is based on a combination of typological, chronological and technological analyses. The mace head is made of copper all...
An unusual red and black bowl was found in Parker's excavations in Jerusalem at the beginning of the century. There has been no agreement as to the provenience of the bowl, the most common opinion being that it was a Cypriot import dating to Middle Bronze I age. an Archaeological re-appraisal and Archaeometric examinations of the bowl and selected...
Eight cuneiform tablets, two Egyptian inscriptions two of us usinS microarchaeological (petrograph and a Hittite fragment of a bulla were found in ic " Goren> and elemental (neutron activation the excavations of Building 1104 at Tel Aphek, MomnlSen) methods' su^ new data that neces" dated to the 13* century BCE and interpreted by sitates some reval...
A First Century CE ossuary belonging to a private collector, bearing engraved Aramaic inscription ''Ya'akov bar Yosef achui de Yeshua'' (James son of Joseph his brother of Jesus), has been attributed to James, Jesus' brother, first head of the Jerusalem church. The ossuary was reportedly found around Jerusalem. Previous examination suggested that t...
An amphora handle incised with a possible Cypro-Minoan sign from 13th century BCE Aphek provides new evidence for the Cypro-Canaanite trade during the Late Bronze Age. Manufactured in the Acco plain, this amphorah may have travelled to Cyprus, been marked there, and then re-filled and sent to Canaan, to be deposited in the Egyptian Governor's resid...
A black stone tablet bearing an engraved Hebrew inscription in ancient Phoenician script has been attributed to the period of King Jehoash of Judah's repairs of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The results of a previous mineralogical and geochemical study suggested that the inscription could have been genuine, leading to the hypothesis that the table...
The renewed excavations of the Early Bronze cultic compound (Area J) at Tel Megiddo revealed a cache of 16 Egyptian-looking vessels, dated either to the EB I or the EB III. This discovery calls to mind the Egyptian-looking jar unearthed on the eastern slope of the tel by the Oriental Institute team some 70 years ago. The typological and technologic...
A petrographic investigation of the Amarna tablets has been carried out by the authors since 1997. Over 300 tablets have so far been examined, including 14 letters sent by the rulers of Amurru. The petrographic data makes it possible to trace the territorial expansion of the kingdom of Amurru in the days of Abdi-Ashirta and Aziru. The Amurru letter...